A bottom-up approach is introduced to fabricate two-dimensional self-assembled layers of molecular spin-systems containing Mn and Fe ions arranged in a chessboard lattice.
We demonstrate that the Mn and Fe spin states can be reversibly operated by their selective response to coordination/decoordination of volatile ligands like ammonia (NH₃).

This work was carried out for the Bern team under the guidance of Dr. Shi-Xia Liu (in the group of Prof. Silvio Decurtins) in a collaboration with the team of Prof. Thomas A. Jung (PSI, SLS).

References:

• C. Wäckerlin, J. Nowakowski, S.-X. Liu, M. Jaggi, D. Siewert, J. Girovsky, A. Shchyrba, T. Hählen, A. Kleibert, P. M. Oppeneer, F. Nolting, S. Decurtins, T. A. Jung, N. Ballav;
  "Two-Dimensional Supramolecular Electron Spin Arrays"
  Adv. Mater., 25, 2403, (2013); doi:10.1002/adma.201370112 and
  Adv. Mater., 25, 2404-2408, (2013); doi:10.1002/adma.201204274.