RESUMEN
Controlling the dynamics of spins on surfaces is pivotal to the design of spintronic and quantum computing devices. Proposed schemes involve the interaction of spins with graphene to enable surface-state spintronics and electrical spin manipulation. However, the influence of the graphene environment on the spin systems has yet to be unravelled. Here we explore the spin-graphene interaction by studying the classical and quantum dynamics of molecular magnets on graphene. Whereas the static spin response remains unaltered, the quantum spin dynamics and associated selection rules are profoundly modulated. The couplings to graphene phonons, to other spins, and to Dirac fermions are quantified using a newly developed model. Coupling to Dirac electrons introduces a dominant quantum relaxation channel that, by driving the spins over Villain's threshold, gives rise to fully coherent, resonant spin tunnelling. Our findings provide fundamental insight into the interaction between spins and graphene, establishing the basis for electrical spin manipulation in graphene nanodevices.
RESUMEN
Controlling the speed at which systems evolve is a challenge shared by all disciplines, and otherwise unrelated areas use common theoretical frameworks towards this goal. A particularly widespread model is Glauber dynamics, which describes the time evolution of the Ising model and can be applied to any binary system. Here we show, using molecular nanowires under irradiation, that Glauber dynamics can be controlled by a novel domain-wall kickoff mechanism. In contrast to known processes, the kickoff has unambiguous fingerprints, slowing down the spin-flip attempt rate by several orders of magnitude, and following a scaling law. The required irradiance is very low, a substantial improvement over present methods of magneto-optical switching. These results provide a new way to control and study stochastic dynamic processes. Being general for Glauber dynamics, they can be extended to different kinds of magnetic nanowires and to numerous fields, ranging from social evolution to neural networks and chemical reactivity.
RESUMEN
The magnetic behaviour of molecular single-chain magnets is investigated in the framework of a one-dimensional Ising model with single spin-flip Glauber dynamics. Opportune modifications to the original theory are required in order to account for non-collinearity of local anisotropy axes between themselves and with respect to the crystallographic (laboratory) frame. The extension of Glauber's theory to the case of a collinear Ising ferrimagnetic chain is also discussed. Within this formalism, both the dynamics of magnetization reversal in zero field and the response of the system to a weak magnetic field, oscillating in time, are studied. Depending on the experimental geometry, selection rules are found for the occurrence of slow relaxation of the magnetization at low temperatures, as well as for resonant behaviour of the a.c. susceptibility as a function of temperature at low frequencies. The present theory applies successfully to some real systems, namely Mn-, Dy- and Co-based molecular magnetic chains, showing that single-chain-magnet behaviour is not only a feature of collinear ferro- and ferrimagnetic, but also of canted antiferromagnetic chains.