Inelastic Electron Tunneling Spectroscopy of a Mn Dimer

• Authors: F. Delgado , J. Fernández-Rossier
• Languages of publication: EN

Abstracts

EN

A scanning tunneling microscope can probe the inelastic spin excitations of single magnetic atoms in a surface via spin-flip assisted tunneling. A particular and intriguing case is the Mn dimer case. We show here that the existing theories for inelastic transport spectroscopy do not explain the observed spin transitions when both atoms are equally coupled to the scanning tunneling microscope tip and the substrate, the most likely experimental situation. The hyperfine coupling to the nuclear spins is shown to lead to a finite excitation amplitude, but the physical mechanism leading to the large inelastic signal observed is still unknown. We discuss some other alternatives that break the symmetry of the system and allow for larger excitation probabilities.

Keywords

EN

72.25.Pn; 71.70.Gm; 72.10.Bg; 72.25.Mk

Discipline

• 72.10.Bg: General formulation of transport theory
• 72.25.Mk: Spin transport through interfaces
• 71.70.Gm: Exchange interactions
• 72.25.Pn: Current-driven spin pumping

• Publisher: Institute of Physics, Polish Academy of Sciences
• Journal: Acta Physica Polonica A
• Year: 2012
• Volume: 122
• Issue: 2
• Pages: 304-306

Dates

published

2012-08

Contributors

author

F. Delgado

• INL-International Iberian Nanotechnology Laboratory, Av. Mestre José Veiga, 4715-310 Braga, Portugal
• Departamento de Física Aplicada, Universidad de Alicante, San Vicente del Raspeig, 03690, Spain

author

J. Fernández-Rossier

• INL-International Iberian Nanotechnology Laboratory, Av. Mestre José Veiga, 4715-310 Braga, Portugal
• Departamento de Física Aplicada, Universidad de Alicante, San Vicente del Raspeig, 03690, Spain

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Identifiers

DOI

10.12693/APhysPolA.122.304