The adsorption structure of methylthiolate (${\mathrm{C}\mathrm{H}}_3\mathrm{S}$) adsorbed on Au(111), a long-standing controversial issue, has been unambiguously determined by scanned-energy and scanned-angle S $2p$ photoelectron diffraction. The methylthiolate molecules are found to occupy atop sites with a S-Au distance of $2.42\pm 0.03\AA$. The angular distribution of the S $2p$ photoelectrons due to forward scattering reveals that the S-C bond is inclined by approximately 50° from the surface normal towards both the $[\overline{2}11]$ and $[\overline{1}2\overline{1}]$ (nearest-neighbor thiolate) directions.

The electronic structure and spin magnetism for few-layer-graphene nanoribbons synthesized by chemical vapor deposition have been investigated using near-edge x-ray absorption fine structure (NEXAFS) and electron-spin resonance (ESR). For the pristine sample, a prepeak was observed below the ${\pi }^{\ast }$ peak close to the Fermi level in NEXAFS, indicating the presence of additional electronic states close to the Fermi level. The intensity of this prepeak decreased with increasing annealing temperature and disappeared after annealing above $1500°\text{C}$. The ESR spectra, which proved the presence of localized spins, tracked the annealing-temperature-dependent behavior of the prepeak with fidelity. The NEXAFS and ESR results jointly confirm the existence of a magnetic edge state that originates from open nanographene edges. The disappearance of the edge state after annealing at higher temperatures is explained by the decrease in the population of open edges owing to loop formation of adjacent graphene edges.

The spin, in-plane and out-of-plane orbital and magnetic dipole moments of almost purely interfacial Co atoms were directly determined for Au/2-monolayer Co nanoclusters/Au(111) by angle-dependent magnetic circular x-ray dichroism (MCXD) measurements. The field- and temperature-dependent MCXD evidences a ferromagnetic(FM)-to-superparamagnetic phase transition in single-domain clusters with decreasing size. The interfacial moments are remarkably enhanced as compared with bulk values, verifying theoretical predictions. The FM clusters show strong perpendicular magnetic anisotropy, providing promise of applications for nanoscale magnetic bits.