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O: Fachverband Oberflächenphysik
O 99: Scanning Probe Methods III
O 99.1: Talk
Friday, April 4, 2014, 10:30–10:45, GER 38
Sensing the spin environment at atomic dimensions — •Shichao Yan1, Deung-Jang Choi1, Jacob Burgess1, Steffen Rolf-Pissarczyk1, and Sebastian Loth1,2 — 1Max Plank Institute for the Structure and Dynamics of Matter, Hamburg — 2Max Planck Institute for Solid State Research, Stuttgart
Electronic pump-probe spectroscopy is a versatile tool to study dynamic processes in tunnel junctions with nanosecond time resolution. We apply this technique to low temperature scanning tunneling microscopy and study spin dynamics of Fe nanostructures. Regular patterns of Fe atoms can be assembled with the tip of the STM on a copper nitride surface on Cu(100) and studied individually. The spin relaxation time of Fe trimers is found to be extremely sensitive to variations in their spin environment. We use this sensitivity to sense the presence of another spin. By attaching one transition metal atom to the STM tip and approaching it to the Fe trimer on the surface we deduce the coupling strength between the magnetic atoms. In addition, by monitoring minute changes of the Fe trimer's spin relaxation time, the magnetic state of long-lived spin chains can be sensed even at several nanometers distance.