Translation of metal-phthalocyanines adsorbed on Au(111): from van der Waals interaction to strong electronic correlation

Using first-principles calculations, we investigate the binding energy for six transition metal - phthalocyanine molecules adsorbed on Au(111). We focus on the effect of translation on molecule - surface physical properties; van der Waals interactions as well as the strong correlation in d orbitals of transition metals are taken into account in all calculations. We found that dispersion interaction and charge transfer have the dominant role in the molecule-surface interaction, while the interaction between the transition metal and gold has a rather indirect influence over the physics of the molecule-surface system. A detailed analysis of the physical properties of the adsorbates at different geometric configurations allows us to propose qualitative models to account for all values of interface dipole charge transfer and magnetic moment of metal-phthalocyanines adsorbed on Au(111).