Air-stable organic-based semiconducting room temperature thin film magnet for spintronics applications

Linköping University Postprint

Air-stable organic-based semiconducting

room temperature thin film magnet for

spintronics applications

Elin Carlegrim, Anna Kanciurzewska, Per Nordblad and Mats Fahlman

N.B.: When citing this work, cite the original article.

Original publication:

Elin Carlegrim, Anna Kanciurzewska, Per Nordblad and Mats Fahlman, Air-stable

organic-based semiconducting room temperature thin film magnet for spintronics applications, 2008,

Applied Physics Letters, (92), 163308.

http://dx.doi.org/10.1063/1.2916901

.

Copyright: American Institute of Physics,

http://apl.aip.org/apl/top.jsp

Postprint available free at:

Air-stable organic-based semiconducting room temperature thin film

magnet for spintronics applications

Elin Carlegrim,1,a兲Anna Kanciurzewska,1,2Per Nordblad,3and Mats Fahlman1 1

Department of Science and Technology (ITN), Linköping University, S-601 74 Norrköping, Sweden

2_{Applied Photochemistry Laboratory, Faculty of Chemistry, Adam Mickiewicz University, Grunwaldzka 6,}

60-780 Poznań, Poland

3_{Department of Engineering Sciences, Uppsala University, S-751 21 Uppsala, Sweden} 共Received 10 March 2008; accepted 3 April 2008; published online 25 April 2008兲

Herein, we report on a preparation method of vanadium tetracyanoethylene, V共TCNE兲x, an organic-based semiconducting room temperature thin film magnet. Previously, this compound has been reported to be extremely air sensitive but this preparation method leads to V共TCNE兲x, which can retain its magnetic ordering at least several weeks in air. The electronic structure has been studied by photoelectron spectroscopy and the magnetic properties by superconducting quantum interference device. The properties mentioned above, in combination with complete spin polarization, makes this air-stable V共TCNE兲x a very promising material for spintronic devices. © 2008 American Institute of Physics.关DOI:10.1063/1.2916901兴

Vanadium tetracyanoethylene, V共TCNE兲x, x⬃2, is one of very few room temperature organic-based magnets1 and belongs to the V共TCNE兲xfamily, where M = V, Mn, Fe, Co, Ni, etc.2–6 The high Curie temperature in combination with semiconducting behavior and complete spin polarization7 makes V共TCNE兲x a promising material for spintronic applications.8A main problem of V共TCNE兲x, however, is its extreme air sensitivity2,9–11,13 and that residual solvent mol-ecules and/or precursor-based by-products negatively affect magnetic properties11,14 as well as introduce electron trap states.15Here, we present a in situ preparation method based on physical vapor deposition 共PVD兲 resulting in films free from residual solvent molecules and precursor-based by-products. Our first result shows that PVD-prepared V共TCNE兲x films can retain their magnetic properties 共at least兲 for several weeks in air, which is a necessary step toward development of practical applications.

Organic-based magnets exhibit properties typically not associated with conventional magnets, such as tunability of properties via chemical routes, low weight, low temperature manufacturing, semiconducting to insulating conductivity, flexibility, etc.1When V共TCNE兲xwas discovered in 1991,2it was prepared by organic synthesis, forming an insoluble, solvent-containing powder, V共TCNE兲x· y共solvent兲, where x ⬃2 and y⬃0.5. In addition to residual solvent, it also con-tains by-products originating from the reaction between the precursors. As a solvent-containing powder, V共TCNE兲x is extremely air sensitive and decomposes after a few seconds in air, sometimes in a pyrophoric manner.2

The problem of residual solvent was eliminated by the preparation of V共TCNE兲x by chemical vapor deposition 共CVD兲.9,10

In the CVD process, the precursors, TCNE, and bis共benzene兲vanadium, V共C6H6兲2 关or vanadium

hexacarbo-nyl, V共CO兲₆兴 react, forming a solvent-free thin magnetic V共TCNE兲x film onto a substrate. The lack of solvent mol-ecules cause increased structural order, and hence, improved magnetic characteristics.14 However, the CVD-prepared

magnets still contain reacted oxygen and, generally, also re-sidual by-products13,15and degrade after only a few minutes or hours in air depending on the precursor used.9,10Recently, an ultrahigh vacuum 共UHV兲 compatible CVD-based prepa-ration method was presented,12 enabling both preparation and characterization of completely oxygen-free V共TCNE兲x thin films. However the oxygen-free V共TCNE兲x thin films also contain 共traces兲 of by-products from the chemical reaction.12,13

In order to eliminate the deleterious effect of the metal-containing precursor, we have developed a method based on PVD. Instead of precursor compounds such as V共C6H6兲2

共Ref.2兲 or V共CO兲₆,14pure metal is used, avoiding the use of 共often hazardous兲 metal-containing precursors, which 共in ad-dition to creating structural disorder兲 can be difficult to pre-pare and are not always commercially available. Preparation in UHV leads to completely oxygen-free thin films.

Two sets of thin films were prepared for the photoelec-tron spectroscopy studies. One set of V共TCNE兲x thin films 共tens of angstroms兲 was prepared by the PVD-based method. The vanadium metal共99.9% purity兲 was deposited by using a portable Omicron® PVD source and were allowed to react with TCNE, forming a thin film on sputter-cleaned gold sub-strates. The other set of V共TCNE兲xthin films共a few nanom-eters兲 were deposited by an UHV-compatible CVD system of our own design.12The films were characterized in situ with x-ray spectroscopy 共XPS兲 and ultraviolet spectroscopy 共UPS兲, by a Scienta® ESCA 200 spectrometer. XPS and UPS were performed by using monochromatized Al K␣ x-rays at h␯= 1486.6 eV and HeI at h␯= 21.2 eV, respec-tively. The experimental condition was such that the full width at half maximum共FWHM兲 of the gold Au 共4f7/2兲 was

0.65 eV and the resolution of UPS was 0.1 eV, measured from the Fermi edge of gold.

Figure1共a兲depicts the XPS core level spectra of C共1s兲 of PVD- and CVD-prepared V共TCNE兲x, respectively. The features in the C 共1s兲 spectrum of the CVD-prepared V共TCNE兲x originates from high to low binding energy to shake up events and the main peak. The C共1s兲 core level features of PVD-prepared V共TCNE兲x with a main peak

lo-a兲_{Author to whom correspondence should be addressed. FAX:}

⫹46-11-363270. Electronic mail: elica@itn.liu.se.

APPLIED PHYSICS LETTERS 92, 163308共2008兲

0003-6951/2008/92共16兲/163308/3/$23.00 92, 163308-1 © 2008 American Institute of Physics

cated at 285.9 eV mimics the corresponding “best practice” CVD V共TCNE兲x. The N 共1s兲 XPS core level spectra of the PVD- and CVD-prepared V共TCNE兲xfilms are shown in Fig.

1共b兲. The features in the N 共1s兲 core level spectra of the CVD-prepared thin film is assigned to, from high to low binding energy; shake up, uncoordinated nitrogen and vanadium-coordinated nitrogen of TCNE−_.12

Similar to the C 共1s兲, the N 共1s兲 peak of PVD-prepared film is identical to N 共1s兲 of the CVD-prepared thin film, indicating an identical chemical environment for the carbon and nitrogen species in the two systems. The V共2p兲 core levels 共not shown here兲 are also identical for the CVD- and PVD-prepared V共TCNE兲x films, with the V 共2p兲 doublet located at around 514 eV 关V共2p兲3/2兴 and 521 eV 关V共2p兲1/2兴, and hence, assigned to be

in the V2+_state.9,10,16

The ratio between vanadium and nitro-gen was determined by comparing the relative heights of the XPS peaks of the PVD- and CVD-prepared V共TCNE兲x thin films, respectively, and the vanadium to nitrogen ratio is the same, both共within the error bars for the measurement兲 giv-ing a stoichiometry of roughly two TCNE molecules per va-nadium ion as expected.

Previous studies of the valence band of CVD-prepared V共TCNE兲x thin films show three features in the 5 – 0 eV binding energy region.12,13 These peaks can be assigned to the destabilized highest occupied molecular orbital of TCNE at 3.5 eV, the共TCNE兲−singly occupied molecular orbital at 2.5 eV, and the triply occupied 3d level of the V2+ ion at 1.0 eV, respectively.12 共Note that the frontier occupied elec-tronic structure in fact is slightly more complex due to the hybridization effects between V 共3d兲 and ␲-orbital共s兲 of TCNE兲.12,13 The same features are present 共see Fig. 2兲 for

both the PVD- and CVD-prepared thin films but the features are slightly more pronounced in the spectrum of PVD-prepared V共TCNE兲x. This is a sign of increased structural 共and chemical兲 order in the thin films obtained by the PVD-based method, as compared to the CVD films.

Thicker films of V共TCNE兲x 共tens of nm兲 for supercon-ducting quantum interference device共SQUID兲 measurements were prepared by the PVD method on 0.0007 mm thin Mylar 共polyethylene terephthalate兲 foil. The film of V共TCNE兲x de-posited on Mylar foil was characterized by a Quantum De-sign magnetic property measurement system 共MPMS兲 XL SQUID magnetometer. The measurements were made by us-ing the reciprocatus-ing sample option mode which gives the

highest possible sensitivity 共5⫻10−9 emu兲 for the MPMS. Note that the film had been stored in ambient atmosphere 共air兲 for several weeks before the SQUID measurements were performed.

A magnetization versus applied field M共H兲 curve taken at 200 K is depicted in Fig.3共a兲, where a ferromagnetic hys-teresis behavior superposed on a paramagnetic background signal is observed, the latter originating from the Mylar film. The coercive field obtained is⬃65 Oe, which is higher than expected for defect-rich CVD-prepared V共TCNE兲xbut simi-lar to what is obtained for relatively defect-free CVD-prepared V共TCNE兲x.11

The temperature dependence 共zero field cooled兲 of the magnetization at an applied file of 20 Oe is depicted in Fig. 3共b兲. The Curie temperature is extrapo-lated from the sharp drop/edge of the M共T兲 curve as TC ⬃365 K, also is in line with the reported values for CVD-prepared V共TCNE兲x 共320–400 K兲.11,14 More importantly, the magnetic measurements showed a largely improved air stability and V共TCNE兲x thin films fabricated by this PVD-based technique can retain their magnetic ordering even after

several weeks in air.

The reason for the largely improved air stability is not clear. The photoelectron spectroscopy results show that the two materials are very similar in question of composition and electronic structure, although the results clearly point to bet-ter ordered films with fewer defects for the PVD method. Most likely, the V共TCNE兲xnetwork becomes stronger as im-purities共such as residual solvent and/or by-products兲 prevent

FIG. 1. XPS core levels of V共TCNE兲xprepared by PVD and CVD,

respec-tively.共a兲 C 共1s兲. 共b兲 N 共1s兲. The chemical structure of TCNE is inserted in

共a兲. FIG. 2. HeI UPS valence region electronic structure of V共TCNE兲xprepared

by PVD and CVD, respectively.

FIG. 3. SQUID measurements of V共TCNE兲xprepared by PVD.共a兲

Hyster-esis curve at 200 K.共b兲 Temperature dependence at 20 Oe applied field 共zero field cooled兲.

163308-2 Carlegrim et al. Appl. Phys. Lett. 92, 163308共2008兲

long-range magnetic ordering and uncoordinated or incor-rectly coordinated V and TCNE may act as reaction sites for oxidation. The PVD-prepared magnets may also be denser packed due to the lack of solvent and residual byproducts in the film, making it more difficult for oxygen and water to penetrate/diffuse into the film. These mechanisms have been previously used to explain improved air stability in

M共TCNE兲xmagnets11and are consistent with the experimen-tal results presented.

Another advantage is that the PVD method enables preparation of an unlimited number of other organic-based magnets in this family, by varying the metal, the organic molecule or both, as well as preparation of multimolecule or multimetal systems such as M_z

⬘

⬙

In summary, we have developed a preparation method based on PVD of the semiconducting room temperature mo-lecular magnet V共TCNE兲x. This method produces V共TCNE兲x that lacks the problem with residual solvent and precursor materials, which has shown to negatively affect the magnetic properties of the material. Preparation by this method results in V共TCNE兲x, which retain room temperature ordering 共at least several weeks兲 in air. It also enables preparation of an unlimited number of other organic-based magnets in this family. Hence, the technique should facilitate a much more rapid development of new organic-based magnets as well as enable “real” devices to be fabricated and used in ambient environments.

The authors acknowledge financial support from the Swedish Research Council 共project grant, Linneus center兲, the Carl Tryggers Foundation, the Knut and Alice Wallen-berg Foundation, and the Swedish Foundation for Strategic

Research funded Center for Advanced Molecular Materials 共CAMM兲.

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