New electronic and magnetic properties of monolayers of thiols on gold

New electronic and magnetic properties are induced by the adsorption of close-packed monolayers of thiols on gold. In layers made from chiral molecules, unexpectedly large electronic dichroism is observed, which manifests itself as spin-specific electron transmission. For many thiolated molecules self-assembled on gold, a surprisingly large ferromagnetism is observed. All the observations can be rationalized by assuming orbital ferromagnetism of the organic thin layer. This is a new type of magnetism, induced by the formation of a closed packed layer of organic molecules on metal. The adsorption results in charge transfer between the substrate and the adsorbed layer, which is the origin of this magnetism.