Adsorption structure and spin polarization of pentacene on a magnetized Fe(1 0 0) substrate: SPMDS and ERDA study

The adsorption structure and spin-resolved electronic structure of pentacene on Fe(1 0 0) surfaces were investigated using elastic recoil detection analysis (ERDA) and spin-polarized metastable deexcitation spectroscopy (SPMDS), respectively. It was found that the pentacene molecule adsorbs with its molecular plane parallel to the surface in the initial stage of growth, while the molecular plane tilted from the surface with the increase of the coverage. In the pentacene–Fe surface interaction, a donation and backdonation interaction was indicated. It was found that the polarity of the spin polarization induced in the pentacene molecular orbitals was opposite to each other between the orbitals contributing to the donation and those contributing to the backdonation.