Thermal and Magnetic-Field Stability of Holmium Single-Atom Magnets

Fabian Donat Natterer, Fabio Donati, François Patthey, and Harald Brune
Phys. Rev. Lett. 121, 027201 – Published 10 July 2018
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Abstract

We use spin-polarized scanning tunneling microscopy to demonstrate that Ho atoms on magnesium oxide exhibit a coercive field of more than 8 T and magnetic bistability for many minutes, both at 35 K. The first spontaneous magnetization reversal events are recorded at 45 K, for which the metastable state relaxes in an external field of 8 T. The transverse magnetic anisotropy energy is estimated from magnetic field and bias voltage dependent switching rates at 4.3 K. Our measurements constrain the possible ground state of Ho single-atom magnets to either Jz=7 or 8, both compatible with magnetic bistability at fields larger than 10 mT.

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  • Received 1 January 2018
  • Revised 13 April 2018

DOI:https://doi.org/10.1103/PhysRevLett.121.027201

© 2018 American Physical Society

Physics Subject Headings (PhySH)

Condensed Matter, Materials & Applied Physics

Authors & Affiliations

Fabian Donat Natterer1, Fabio Donati2,1,3, François Patthey1, and Harald Brune1

  • 1Institute of Physics, École Polytechnique Fédérale de Lausanne, Station 3, CH-1015 Lausanne, Switzerland
  • 2Center for Quantum Nanoscience, Institute for Basic Science, Seoul 03760, Republic of Korea
  • 3Department of Physics, Ewha Womans University, Seoul 03760, Republic of Korea

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Issue

Vol. 121, Iss. 2 — 13 July 2018

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