Proximity-driven magnetic coupling between an open-shell nanographene and a rare-earth surface alloy

Open-shell nanographenes have attracted significant attention due to their structurally tunable spin ground state. While most characterization has been conducted on weakly interacting substrates such as noble metals, the influence of magnetic surfaces remains largely unexplored. In a recent publication,  we investigate how TbAu₂, a rare-earth-element-based surface alloy, affects the magnetic properties of phenalenyl (or [2]triangulene (2T)), the smallest spin-1/2 nanographene. Scanning tunneling spectroscopy (STS) measurements reveal a striking contrast: while 2T on Au(111) exhibits a zero-bias Kondo resonance─a hallmark of a spin-1/2 impurity screened by the conduction electrons of the underlying metal─deposition on TbAu₂ induces a symmetric splitting of this feature by approximately 20 mV. This opening is large compared to the few meV splitting induced by externally applied magnetic fields. We attribute this splitting to a strong proximity-induced interaction with the ferromagnetic out-of-plane magnetization of TbAu₂. Moreover, our combined experimental and many-body model analysis demonstrates that this interaction is spatially modulated, following the periodicity of the TbAu₂ surface superstructure. These findings highlight that TbAu₂ serves as a viable platform for stabilizing and characterizing the magnetic properties of spin-1/2 nanographenes and for studying the interactions of more complex π-magnetic materials with magnetic substrates. The record contains data supporting the results presented in the publication