Highly entangled polyradical nanographene with coexisting strong correlation and topological frustration

Authors

Sh. Song, A. Pinar, A. Matěj, G. Li, O. Stetsovych, D. Soler, H. Yang, M. Telychko, J. Li, M. Kumar, Q. Chen, Sh. Edalatmanesh, J. Brabec, L. Veis, J. Wu, P. Jelínek, J. Lu

Laboratory / Department
Department of surfaces and molecular structures
DOI
10.1038/s41557-024-01453-9
Year
2024

We report on-surface synthesis of butterfly-shaped tetraradical nanographene, which electronic structure was designed combining topological frustration and electron–electron interactions. Using STM/STS, we observed strong correlations, ferromagnetic/antiferromagnetic interactions, and a many-body singlet ground state. We characterized the magnetic ground state via a nickelocene magnetic STM probe.

3-4_Highly entangled polyradical nanographene with coexisting strong correlation_Figure_nickelocene.png
Schematic image showing the magnetic interaction between the 4 unpaired electrons of a nanographene "butterfly" at its corners and the functionalized scanning microscope tip with a nickelocene molecule, which allowed the magnetism of nanographene to be demonstrated.