Deposition of single-molecule magnets on graphene quantum dots.

Gapless graphene is a single-atom-thick material that yields ultra-broadband photodetectors for applications that require high sensitivity. These applications include spectroscopy of single molecule magnets (SMMs), metal-ion complexes that exhibit quantum behavior at low temperatures and have great potential as components for quantum computing and molecular spintronics. By grafting small amounts of SMMs directly to the surface of a graphene quantum dot, we can utilize the high sensitivity of a graphene hot-electron bolometer to perform spectroscopy on the SMMs. We have investigated various methods of grafting transition-metal-based SMMs to the graphene and characterizing the deposited molecules.