EMOF · Synthesizing and Investigating the Exotic Electronic Properties of Two-Dimensional Metal-Organic Frameworks

Metal-organic frameworks (MOFs) are coordination polymers synthesized by bonding organic ligands with metals or metal clusters. Recently, exotic electronic properties have been predicted theoretically for two-dimensional (2D) MOFs, such as topological non-trivial band structure (2D organic topological insulators and so on), superconductivity, half-metallic ferromagnetism and quantum spin liquid. 2D MOFs have been synthesized on metal surfaces by following the concepts of supramolecular coordination chemistry. However, molecular adsorbates on metal surfaces interact strongly with the underlying metal substrate. Therefore, their electronic properties are drastically modified.This project will focus on synthesizing and investigating the intrinsic exotic electronic properties of 2D MOFs on insulating, weakly interacting, and tunable gated substrates by ultra-high vacuum low-temperature Scanning Tunneling Microscopy and Spectroscopy with non-contact Atomic Force Microscopy. In order to achieve these ambitious targets, I have divided this proposal into three work packages: 1. synthesizing 2D MOFs on inert surfaces; 2. structural and electronic characterization of 2D MOFs; 3. tuning the exotic electronic properties of 2D MOFs on gated graphene devices. The applicant and the host group have initial results on the topics discussed in this proposal and are thus in a unique position to make ground-breaking contributions in this area.Understanding and tuning the growth and the electronic properties of MOFs will offer a versatile platform to realize topological electronics as well as different kinds of novel phenomenon in condensed matter physics. The bottom-up synthesis techniques guarantee a technological route which can easily be scaled-up to be used for applications. Longer term, the biggest impact is expected through applications of MOFs in dissipationless electronics and spintronics.