Critical Materials: Atomically Precise Manipulations of Rare-Earth Complexes for Quantum and Nanomachine Applications

Rare-earth (RE) elements are critical for high technological applications and one of the best options for their efficient usage is to place them inside coordination complexes; such systems are uniquely advantageous due to their well-defined and reproducible shapes and sizes. In these structures, RE ions are caged inside organic linkers whose electronic properties can be tuned by an external stimulus. Atomic scale characterization of individual rare-earth ions in the RE complexes are performed by using the most advanced instrumentation techniques: Scanning tunneling microscopy, and tunneling spectroscopy combined with atom manipulation methods are used to probe the structural and electronic information while the elemental and chemical properties of individual RE ions are determined by using nascent synchrotron X-ray scanning tunneling microscopy method. In this talk, atomic scale control on the rotation of rare-earth complexes and formation of chiral rare-earth clusters on metal surfaces will be presented. Moreover, a groundbreaking experiment on the detection of just one atom using X-rays will also be presented. These experiments provide unparalleled atomic level information on the rare-earth ion environment within these novel structures and will enable to develop rational blueprints for the design and synthesis of new structures with improved functions for quantum, energy up-conversion, separation, and nanomechanical applications. This work is supported by the U.S. Department of Energy, Office of Science, Office of Basic Energy Sciences, Materials Science and Engineering Division. Work performed at the Center for Nanoscale Materials, and Advanced Photon Source, both U.S. Department of Energy Office of Science User Facility, was supported by the U.S. DOE, Office of Basic Energy Sciences, under Contract No. DE-AC02-06CH11357.