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Nano Research 2022, 15(2): 1466-1471 https://doi.org/10.1007/s12274-021-3688-1
Research Article | Issue | Published: 23 July 2021

Reversible switching of Kondo resonance in a single-molecule junction

Show Author's Information Yuqing Xing1,  Hui Chen1,2( ),  Bin Hu1,  Yuhan Ye1,  Werner A. Hofer1,  Hong-Jun Gao1,2( )
Institute of Physics Chinese Academy of Sciences and University of Chinese Academy of SciencesBeijing 100190 China
Songshan Lake Materials LaboratoryDongguan 523808 China
Keywords:
scanning tunneling microscope, iron phthalocyanine (FePc), superconducting tip, Kondo resonance, inelastic electron tunneling, Yu–Shiba–Rusinov states
Topics:
Scanning tunneling microscopy
Cite this article:
Xing Y, Chen H, Hu B, et al. Reversible switching of Kondo resonance in a single-molecule junction. Nano Research, 2022, 15(2): 1466-1471. https://doi.org/10.1007/s12274-021-3688-1
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Abstract Full text Electronic supplementary material About this article

The control of the Kondo effect is of great interest in single-molecule junction due to its potential applications in spin based electronics. Here, we demonstrate that the Kondo effect is reversibly switched on and off in an iron phthalocyanine (FePc) single-molecule junction by using a superconducting Nb tip. In a scanning tunneling microscope-based Nb-insulator-FePc-Au junction, we achieve a reversible switching between the Kondo dip and inelastic electronic tunneling spectra by simply adjusting the tip-sample distance to tune the tunnel coupling at low temperature. Further approaching the tip leads to the picking up of the molecule to the tip apex, which transfers the geometry of the single-molecule junction into a Nb-FePc-insulator-Au type. As the molecule forms an effective magnetic impurity embedded into the superconducting ground states of the Nb tip, the out-gap Kondo dip switched to an in-gap Yu–Shiba–Rusinov state. Our results open up a new route for manipulating the Kondo effect within a single-molecule junction.


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About this article

Reversible switching of Kondo resonance in a single-molecule junction

Show Author's information Yuqing Xing1, Hui Chen1,2( ), Bin Hu1, Yuhan Ye1, Werner A. Hofer1, Hong-Jun Gao1,2( )
Institute of Physics Chinese Academy of Sciences and University of Chinese Academy of SciencesBeijing 100190 China
Songshan Lake Materials LaboratoryDongguan 523808 China

Abstract

The control of the Kondo effect is of great interest in single-molecule junction due to its potential applications in spin based electronics. Here, we demonstrate that the Kondo effect is reversibly switched on and off in an iron phthalocyanine (FePc) single-molecule junction by using a superconducting Nb tip. In a scanning tunneling microscope-based Nb-insulator-FePc-Au junction, we achieve a reversible switching between the Kondo dip and inelastic electronic tunneling spectra by simply adjusting the tip-sample distance to tune the tunnel coupling at low temperature. Further approaching the tip leads to the picking up of the molecule to the tip apex, which transfers the geometry of the single-molecule junction into a Nb-FePc-insulator-Au type. As the molecule forms an effective magnetic impurity embedded into the superconducting ground states of the Nb tip, the out-gap Kondo dip switched to an in-gap Yu–Shiba–Rusinov state. Our results open up a new route for manipulating the Kondo effect within a single-molecule junction.

Keywords: scanning tunneling microscope, iron phthalocyanine (FePc), superconducting tip, Kondo resonance, inelastic electron tunneling, Yu–Shiba–Rusinov states

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Publication history
Copyright
Acknowledgements

Publication history

Received: 11 April 2021
Revised: 02 June 2021
Accepted: 16 June 2021
Published: 23 July 2021
Issue date: February 2022

Copyright

© Tsinghua University Press and Springer-Verlag GmbH Germany, part of Springer Nature 2021

Acknowledgements

Acknowledgements

We thank Kai Yang and Min Ouyang for helpful discussion. This work is supported by the National Key Research and Development Program of China (Nos. 2019YFA0308500 and 2018YFA0305800), the National Natural Science Foundation of China (Nos. 52022105 and 61888102), and the Strategic Priority Research Program of Chinese Academy of Sciences (Nos. XDB28000000 and XDB30000000). A portion of the research was performed in CAS Key Laboratory of Vacuum Physics.

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