Graphene-Induced Substrate Decoupling and Ideal Doping of a Self-Assembled Iron-phthalocyanine Single Layer

Iron-phthalocyanine molecules self-assemble on the moiré pattern of graphene/Ir(111) as a flat and weakly interacting layer, as determined by core-level photoemission and absorption spectroscopy. The graphene buffer layer decouples the FePc two-dimensional structure from the underlying metal; the electronic structure of the FePc molecular macrocycles is preserved; and the Fe-L2,3 edges present narrower and slightly modified resonances at the FePc single-layer coverage with respect to a thin film. The FePc layer induces a slight electron doping to the Ir-supported graphene resulting in the Dirac cone position expected for an ideal free-standing-like graphene layer with the standard Fermi velocity.