Regensburg 2016 – scientific programme
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O: Fachverband Oberflächenphysik
O 77: Gerhard Ertl Young Investigator Award
O 77.1: Invited Talk
Thursday, March 10, 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 Dreiser1,3, Željko Šljivančanin4,5, 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.