ISBN 978-3-8439-3337-7

978-3-8439-3337-7, Reihe Physik

Manuel Steinbrecher
Tuning Single Atom Magnetism and Non-Collinear Magnetic Interactions in Nanostructures by STM

287 Seiten, Dissertation Universität Hamburg (2017), Softcover, A5

Zusammenfassung / Abstract

The ever-increasing demand of our society for information technology challenges the development of data storage and processing devices every day. The miniaturization of integrated circuits will find its ultimate limit once a single atom acts as a magnetic bit. In addition, their efficiency can only be significantly increased by developing new technologies like quantum computation or (nano-)spintronics. In order to accomplish these objectives, the underlying physics of single magnetic atoms or nanostructures adsorbed on non-magnetic surfaces has to be well understood, making fundamental science the key to future technologies.

This PhD thesis shall help to better understand single atom magnetism and how it can be controllably altered or stabilized, which mechanisms mediate long-range magnetism in a metal substrate and how the magnetic behavior changes by incorporating single magnetic atoms into nanostructures. So far, mainly collinear magnetic interactions within nanostructures consisting of only a few atoms were discussed in the literature. Now, also non-collinear magnetic interactions have been investigated, since they offer rich possibilities for future spintronic applications.

To address single atoms, achieve a high energy resolution and obtain magnetic information, a scanning tunneling microscope (STM) with its various operational modes was used. The measurements were carried out at a temperature of 0.3 K in a magnetic field of up to 12 T.