Tuning intermolecular charge transfer in donor-acceptor two-dimensional crystals on metal surfaces

Organic charge transfer (CT) compounds display a wide range of exotic electronic properties (charge-density wave stabilization, Peierls transitions, etc.) depending on the amount of charge transferred from the donor (D) to the acceptor (A) species. A complete exploration of the complex electronic phase diagrams for such compounds would thus require methods to systematically tune the amount of charge exchanged in the CT process. This has proven however challenging in the past: chemical functionalization of the constituent molecules can also affect the packing of the molecular units in the crystal, whereas changing D:A stoichiometry is often not possible in the bulk. Interestingly, it was recently found that multiple stoichiometries can actually be achieved by codeposition of different amounts of D and A molecules on metal surfaces. The question, however, of whether CT processes between D and A molecules can be tuned with the D:A ratio in such mixtures has not yet been studied, and it is no trivial matter, since competing CT processes between the metal surface and the organic adsorbates might hinder interadsorbate charge transfer. Here we demonstrate that the CT process from the organic donor tetrathiafulvalene (TTF) to the acceptor tetracyanoquino-p-dimethane (TCNQ) can be tuned with exquisite accuracy (∼0.1 e) by controlling the stoichiometry of D:A cocrystals deposited on Ag(111). This control opens new avenues to explore the complex phase diagrams of organic CT compounds and to tailor their electronic properties.The authors acknowledge financial support from the Spanish Ministry for Economy and Competitiveness (Grants FIS2012-33011, FIS2015-67367-C2-1-P, FIS2013-42002-R, FIS2016-77889-R, CTQ2013-43698-P, CTQ2016-76061-P), the regional government of Comunidad de Madrid (Grants S2009/MAT1726 and S2013/MIT-3007), Universidad Autónoma de Madrid (UAM/48) and IMDEA Nanoscience. L.F. acknowledges financial support from MIUR (PRIN-2010BNZ3F2, Project DESCARTES), S.D.-T. acknowledges the ‘“Ramón y Cajal”’ program of the MINECO (RYC-2010-07019), and the María de Maeztu Programme for Units of Excellence in R&D of the MINECO (MDM-2014-0377)