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

Fabian Donat Natterer, Fabio Donati, François Patthey, Harald Brune

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58 Scopus citations

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.

Original languageEnglish
Article number027201
JournalPhysical Review Letters
Volume121
Issue number2
DOIs
StatePublished - 10 Jul 2018

Bibliographical note

Publisher Copyright:
© 2018 American Physical Society.

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