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Tuning the Exchange Bias on a Single Atom from 1 mT to 10 T

Kai Yang, William Paul, Fabian D. Natterer, Jose L. Lado, Yujeong Bae, Philip Willke, Taeyoung Choi, Alejandro Ferrón, Joaquín Fernández-Rossier, Andreas J. Heinrich, and Christopher P. Lutz
Phys. Rev. Lett. 122, 227203 – Published 6 June 2019
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Abstract

Shrinking spintronic devices to the nanoscale ultimately requires localized control of individual atomic magnetic moments. At these length scales, the exchange interaction plays important roles, such as in the stabilization of spin-quantization axes, the production of spin frustration, and creation of magnetic ordering. Here, we demonstrate the precise control of the exchange bias experienced by a single atom on a surface, covering an energy range of 4 orders of magnitude. The exchange interaction is continuously tunable from milli-eV to micro-eV by adjusting the separation between a spin-1/2 atom on a surface and the magnetic tip of a scanning tunneling microscope. We seamlessly combine inelastic electron tunneling spectroscopy and electron spin resonance to map out the different energy scales. This control of exchange bias over a wide span of energies provides versatile control of spin states, with applications ranging from precise tuning of quantum state properties, to strong exchange bias for local spin doping. In addition, we show that a time-varying exchange interaction generates a localized ac magnetic field that resonantly drives the surface spin. The static and dynamic control of the exchange interaction at the atomic scale provides a new tool to tune the quantum states of coupled-spin systems.

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  • Received 22 February 2019

DOI:https://doi.org/10.1103/PhysRevLett.122.227203

© 2019 American Physical Society

Physics Subject Headings (PhySH)

Condensed Matter, Materials & Applied Physics

Synopsis

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Tuning an Atom’s Magnetic Field

Published 6 June 2019

Researchers modify the magnetic field of a single atom, demonstrating a potential way to store information in tiny devices of the future.

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Authors & Affiliations

Kai Yang1, William Paul1, Fabian D. Natterer1,2, Jose L. Lado3, Yujeong Bae1,4,5, Philip Willke1,4,5, Taeyoung Choi4,5, Alejandro Ferrón6, Joaquín Fernández-Rossier7,8, Andreas J. Heinrich4,5,*, and Christopher P. Lutz1,†

  • 1IBM Almaden Research Center, San Jose, California 95120, USA
  • 2Physik-Institut, University of Zurich, CH-8057 Zurich, Switzerland
  • 3Institute for Theoretical Physics, ETH Zurich, 8093 Zurich, Switzerland
  • 4Center for Quantum Nanoscience, Institute for Basic Science (IBS), Seoul 03760, Republic of Korea
  • 5Department of Physics, Ewha Womans University, Seoul 03760, Republic of Korea
  • 6Instituto de Modelado e Innovación Tecnológica (CONICET-UNNE), and Facultad de Ciencias Exactas, Naturales y Agrimensura, Universidad Nacional del Nordeste, Avenida Libertad 5400, W3404AAS Corrientes, Argentina
  • 7QuantaLab, International Iberian Nanotechnology Laboratory (INL), Avenida Mestre José Veiga, 4715-310 Braga, Portugal
  • 8Departamento de Física Aplicada, Universidad de Alicante, San Vicente del Raspeig 03690, Spain

  • *Corresponding author. heinrich.andreas@qns.science
  • Corresponding author. cplutz@us.ibm.com

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Issue

Vol. 122, Iss. 22 — 7 June 2019

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