Berlin 2012 – scientific programme
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O: Fachverband Oberflächenphysik
O 72: [MA] Joint Session "Surface Magnetism III" (jointly with O)
O 72.12: Talk
Thursday, March 29, 2012, 18:15–18:30, BH 243
Quantum Spin Holography with Surface State Electrons — •Oleg O. Brovko1,2 and Valeri S. Stepanyuk1 — 1Max-Planck-Institut für Mikrostrukturphysik, Halle, Germany — 2Martin-Luther-Universität Halle-Wittenberg, Halle, Germany
Recently Moon and coworkers have shown that information can be stored in a fermionic state of a two-dimensional electron gas and have dubbed the proposed concept quantum holographic encoding [1]. They have constructed molecular holograms of CO molecules on a Cu(111) surface, hosting a Shockley-type surface state (SS) [2]. Interference of electron waves scattered at the molecules led to the formation of an electron density pattern representing an information page [1]. This page has then been read out with an STM. It has been also shown that using the innate energy dispersion of SS electrons one can not only project the hologram in two spatial degrees of freedom but also stack them one on top the other in the energy dimension.
In our contribution we expand the concept and show that the spin of the electron can also act as a new dimension for information storage. If the molecules or atoms used in creation of a hologram are magnetic, then the scattering of surface state electrons becomes spin-dependent, allowing one to store different information pages in different spin channels. As an example we demonstrate the possibility of simultaneous encoding of two different information pages with electrons of the same energy but opposite spins.
[1] C.R. Moon et al., Nature Nano. 4, 167 (2009)
[2] W. Shockley, Phys. Rev. 56, 317 (1939)