Regensburg 2016 – wissenschaftliches Programm

Bereiche | Tage | Auswahl | Suche | Aktualisierungen | Downloads | Hilfe

O: Fachverband Oberflächenphysik

O 77: Gerhard Ertl Young Investigator Award

O 77.1: Hauptvortrag

Donnerstag, 10. März 2016, 10:30–11:00, S051

The first single atom magnet — •Fabio Donati¹, Stefano Rusponi¹, Sebastian Stepanow², Christan Wäckerlin¹, Aparajita Singha¹, Luca Persichetti², Romana Baltic¹, Katharina Diller¹, Edgar Fernandes¹, François Patthey¹, Jan Dreiser^1,3, Željko Šljivančanin^4,5, Kurt Kummer⁶, Corneliu Nistor², Pietro Gambardella², and Harald Brune¹ — ¹Ecole Polytechnique Fédérale de Lausanne — ²ETH Zurich — ³Paul Scherrer Institute — ⁴Vinča Institute of Nuclear Sciences — ⁵Texas A&M University at Qatar — ⁶European Synchrotron Radiation Facility

Realizing magnetic remanence in a single atom is the key to store and process information in the smallest unit of matter. To achieve this goal, one needs to protect the magnetic states of the single atom from quantum tunneling of the magnetization and from scattering with the electrons of the supporting substrate. Here we demonstrate that individual rare-earth atoms adsorbed on ultra-thin insulating layers grown on non-magnetic metal substrates exhibit magnetic remanence up to a temperature of 30 K and a relaxation time of 1500 s at 10 K. This first example of a single atom magnet shows bistability at a temperature which is significantly higher than the best single molecule magnets reported so far. Its extraordinary performances are achieved by a suitable combination of magnetic ground state and adsorption site symmetry, as well as by suppressing spin-electron scattering with conduction electrons by ultra-thin insulating layers.