TY - JOUR A1 - Cimatti, Irene A1 - Ninova, Silviya A1 - Lanzilotto, Valeria A1 - Malavolti, Luigi A1 - Rigamonti, Luca A1 - Cortigiani, Brunetto A1 - Mannini, Matteo A1 - Magnano, Elena A1 - Bondino, Federica A1 - Totti, Federico A1 - Cornia, Andrea A1 - Sessoli, Roberta T1 - UHV deposition and characterization of a mononuclear iron(III) β-diketonate complex on Au(111) JF - Beilstein Journal of Nanotechnology PY - 2014/// VL - 5 SP - 2139 EP - 2148 SN - 2190-4286 DO - 10.3762/bjnano.5.223 PB - Beilstein-Institut JA - Beilstein J. Nanotechnol. UR - https://doi.org/10.3762/bjnano.5.223 KW - Au(111) KW - β-diketonate complexes KW - DFT KW - STM KW - thin films KW - UPS KW - XMCD KW - XPS N2 - The adsorption of the sterically hindered β-diketonate complex Fe(dpm)3, where Hdpm = dipivaloylmethane, on Au(111) was investigated by ultraviolet photoelectron spectroscopy (UPS) and scanning tunnelling microscopy (STM). The high volatility of the molecule limited the growth of the film to a few monolayers. While UPS evidenced the presence of the β-diketonate ligands on the surface, the integrity of the molecule on the surface could not be assessed. The low temperature STM images were more informative and at submonolayer coverage they showed the presence of regular domains characterized by a flat morphology and height of ≈0.3 nm. Along with these domains, tetra-lobed features adsorbed on the kinks of the herringbone were also observed. DFT-simulated images of the pristine molecule and its possible decomposition products allowed to assess the partial fragmentation of Fe(dpm)3 upon adsorption on the Au(111) surface. Structural features with intact molecules were only observed for the saturation coverage. An ex situ prepared thick film of the complex was also investigated by X-ray magnetic circular dichroism (XMCD) and features typical of high-spin iron(III) in octahedral environment were observed. ER -