Study of the Molecular Arrangement of the Metallo-organic Molecule Copper Phthalocyanine on Graphene through Electronic Transport, Atomic Force and Transmission Electron Microscopy

While the last decade and a half has seen great strides in exploiting graphene's unique electronic properties; more recent years have focused on inducing and tuning functionalities derived from strong electronic correlations, spin-orbit coupling by building heterostructures with two-dimensional materials. Here, we present electronic transport measurements as well as transmission electron microscopy (TEM) and atomic force microscopy (AFM) characterization of a hexagonal boron nitride/graphene/copper phthalocyanine (h-BN/Gr/CuPc) heterostructure. Copper phthalocyanine is a paramagnetic metal-organic molecule consisting of 32 carbons, 16 hydrogens, 8 nitrogens, and a central copper atom. The molecular arrangement of CuPc is known to be highly dependent on the interaction with the substrate and the temperature during deposition. We have observed a marked temperature dependence of the differential conductance of the h-BN/Gr/CuPc device that may be attributed to the rearrangement of the metallo-organic molecules on graphene at different temperatures.