Stabilizing the magnetic moment of single holmium atoms by symmetry.

Single magnetic atoms, and assemblies of such atoms, on non-magnetic surfaces have recently attracted attention owing to their potential use in high-density magnetic data storage and as a platform for quantum computing. A fundamental problem resulting from their quantum mechanical nature is that the localized magnetic moments of these atoms are easily destabilized by interactions with electrons, nuclear spins and lattice vibrations of the substrate. Even when large magnetic fields are applied to stabilize the magnetic moment, the observed lifetimes remain rather short (less than a microsecond). Several routes for stabilizing the magnetic moment against fluctuations have been suggested, such as using thin insulating layers between the magnetic atom and the substrate to suppress the interactions with the substrate's conduction electrons, or coupling several magnetic moments together to reduce their quantum mechanical fluctuations. Here we show that the magnetic moments of single holmium atoms on a highly conductive metallic substrate can reach lifetimes of the order of minutes. The necessary decoupling from the thermal bath of electrons, nuclear spins and lattice vibrations is achieved by a remarkable combination of several symmetries intrinsic to the system: time reversal symmetry, the internal symmetries of the total angular momentum and the point symmetry of the local environment of the magnetic atom.

Magnetic excitations of rare earth atoms and clusters on metallic surfaces.

Magnetic anisotropy and magnetization dynamics of rare earth Gd atoms and dimers on Pt(111) and Cu(111) were investigated with inelastic tunneling spectroscopy. The spin excitation spectra reveal that giant magnetic anisotropies and lifetimes of the excited states of Gd are nearly independent of the supporting surfaces and the cluster size. In combination with theoretical calculations, we argue that the observed features are caused by strongly localized character of 4f electrons in Gd atoms and clusters.

Numerical solution of the relativistic single-site scattering problem for the Coulomb and the Mathieu potential.

For a reliable fully-relativistic Korringa-Kohn-Rostoker Green function method, an accurate solution of the underlying single-site scattering problem is necessary. We present an extensive discussion on numerical solutions of the related differential equations by means of standard methods for a direct solution and by means of integral equations. Our implementation is tested and exemplarily demonstrated for a spherically symmetric treatment of a Coulomb potential and for a Mathieu potential to cover the full-potential implementation. For the Coulomb potential we include an analytic discussion of the asymptotic behaviour of irregular scattering solutions close to the origin (r << 1).