Complex Magnetic Exchange Coupling between Co Nanostructures and Ni(111) across Epitaxial Graphene.

We report on the magnetic coupling between isolated Co atoms as well as small Co islands and Ni(111) mediated by an epitaxial graphene layer. X-ray magnetic circular dichroism and scanning tunneling microscopy combined with density functional theory calculations reveal that Co atoms occupy two distinct adsorption sites, with different magnetic coupling to the underlying Ni(111) surface. We further report a transition from an antiferromagnetic to a ferromagnetic coupling with increasing Co cluster size. Our results highlight the extreme sensitivity of the exchange interaction mediated by graphene to the adsorption site and to the in-plane coordination of the magnetic atoms.

Competing Forces during Contact Formation between a Tip and a Single Molecule.

Sn-phthalocyanine adsorbs on Ag(111) in a physisorbed or a chemisorbed configuration. Both structures are contacted with the tip of a combined scanning tunneling and atomic force microscope. The tunneling conductances of both configurations exhibit similar exponential variations with the tip-molecule distance. The short-range forces, however, display nontrivial distance dependencies. First-principles calculations reproduce the experimental results. Both attractive and repulsive interactions occur between the tip and different parts of the molecule due to a combination of bond formation and electrostatic interactions with the tip electric dipole. Consequently, deformations occur and the force varies in the resulting unexpected fashion.

Tunneling anisotropic magnetoresistance effect of single adatoms on a noncollinear magnetic surface.

The tunneling anisotropic magnetoresistance (TAMR) effect demonstrates the sensitivity of spin-polarized electron transport to the orientation of the magnetization with respect to the crystallographic axes. As the TAMR effect requires only a single magnetic electrode, in contrast to the tunneling magnetoresistance effect, it offers an attractive route to alternative spintronic applications. In this work we consider the TAMR effect at the single-atom limit by investigating the anisotropy of the local density of states (LDOS) in the vacuum above transition-metal adatoms adsorbed on a noncollinear magnetic surface, the monolayer of Mn on W(1 1 0). This surface presents a cycloidal spin spiral ground state with an angle of 173° between neighboring spins and thus allows a quasi-continuous exploration of the angular dependence of the TAMR of adsorbed adatoms using scanning tunneling microscopy. Using first-principle calculations, we investigate the TAMR of Co, Rh and Ir adatoms on Mn/W(1 1 0) and relate our results to the magnetization-direction-dependent changes in the LDOS. The anisotropic effect is found to be enhanced dramatically on the adsorption of heavy transition-metal atoms, with values of up to 50% predicted from our calculations. This effect will be measurable even with a non-magnetic STM tip.

Imaging and manipulating the spin direction of individual atoms.

Single magnetic atoms on surfaces are the smallest conceivable units for two-dimensional magnetic data storage. Previous experiments on such systems have investigated magnetization curves, the many-body Kondo effect and magnetic excitations in quantum spin systems, but a stable magnetization has not yet been detected for an atom on a non-magnetic surface in the absence of a magnetic field. The spin direction of a single magnetic atom can be fixed by coupling it to an underlying magnetic substrate via the exchange interaction, but it is then difficult to differentiate between the magnetism of the atom and the surface. Here, we take advantage of the orbital symmetry of the spin-polarized density of states of single cobalt atoms to unambiguously determine their spin direction in real space using a combination of spin-resolved scanning tunnelling microscopy experiments and ab initio calculations. By laterally moving atoms on our non-collinear magnetic template, the spin direction can also be controlled while maintaining magnetic sensitivity, thereby providing an approach for constructing and characterizing artificial atomic-scale magnetic structures.