Dr.jens.brede

We investigate the dynamics of Fe adatoms and dimers deposited on the Cu(111) metallic surface in the presence of spin-orbit coupling, within time-dependent density functional theory. The \textit{ab initio} results provide material-dependent parameters that can be used in semiclassical approaches, which are used for insightful interpretations of the excitation modes. By manipulating the surroundings of the magnetic elements, we show that elliptical precessional motion may be induced through the modification of the magnetic anisotropy energy. We also demonstrate how different kinds of spin precession are realized, considering the symmetry of the magnetic anisotropy energy, the ferro- or antiferromagnetic nature of the exchange coupling between the impurities, and the strength of the magnetic damping. In particular, the normal modes of a dimer depend on the initial magnetic configuration, changing drastically by going from a ferromagnetic metastable state to the antiferromagnetic ground state. By taking into account the effect of the damping into their resonant frequencies, we reveal that an important contribution arises for strongly biaxial systems and specially for the antiferromagnetic dimers with large exchange couplings. Counter intuitively, our results indicate that the magnetic damping influences the quantum fluctuations by decreasing the zero-point energy of the system.

Field-free deterministic ultrafast creation of magnetic skyrmions by spin–orbit torques

Nature Nanotechnology, Published online: 2 October 2017; doi:10.1038/nnano.2017.178

The deterministic nucleation of single skyrmions at a controlled position along multilayered magnetic racetracks is demonstrated by exploiting spin-orbit torques without the need of in-plane magnetic fields.

Condensed-matter physics: Taking control of spin currents

Nature 549, 7673 (2017). doi:10.1038/549464a

Authors: Zhi-Xun Shen & Jonathan Sobota

Conventional wisdom dictates that an electron's magnetic moment and momentum are strongly coupled only in materials made of heavy elements. An experiment demonstrates a striking counterexample. See Letter p.492

Maximal Rashba-like spin splitting via kinetic-energy-coupled inversion-symmetry breaking

Nature 549, 7673 (2017). doi:10.1038/nature23898

Authors: Veronika Sunko, H. Rosner, P. Kushwaha, S. Khim, F. Mazzola, L. Bawden, O. J. Clark, J. M. Riley, D. Kasinathan, M. W. Haverkort, T. K. Kim, M. Hoesch, J. Fujii, I. Vobornik, A. P. Mackenzie & P. D. C. King

Engineering and enhancing the breaking of inversion symmetry in solids—that is, allowing electrons to differentiate between ‘up’ and ‘down’—is a key goal in condensed-matter physics and materials science because it can be used to stabilize states that are of fundamental interest and also have potential practical applications. Examples include improved ferroelectrics for memory devices and materials that host Majorana zero modes for quantum computing. Although inversion symmetry is naturally broken in several crystalline environments, such as at surfaces and interfaces, maximizing the influence of this effect on the electronic states of interest remains a challenge. Here we present a mechanism for realizing a much larger coupling of inversion-symmetry breaking to itinerant surface electrons than is typically achieved. The key element is a pronounced asymmetry of surface hopping energies—that is, a kinetic-energy-coupled inversion-symmetry breaking, the energy scale of which is a substantial fraction of the bandwidth. Using spin- and angle-resolved photoemission spectroscopy, we demonstrate that such a strong inversion-symmetry breaking, when combined with spin–orbit interactions, can mediate Rashba-like spin splittings that are much larger than would typically be expected. The energy scale of the inversion-symmetry breaking that we achieve is so large that the spin splitting in the CoO2- and RhO2-derived surface states of delafossite oxides becomes controlled by the full atomic spin–orbit coupling of the 3d and 4d transition metals, resulting in some of the largest known Rashba-like spin splittings. The core structural building blocks that facilitate the bandwidth-scaled inversion-symmetry breaking are common to numerous materials. Our findings therefore provide opportunities for creating spin-textured states and suggest routes to interfacial control of inversion-symmetry breaking in designer heterostructures of oxides and other material classes.

We show that the magnetic ordering of coupled atomic dimers on a superconductor is revealed by their intra-gap spectral features. Chromium atoms on the superconductor $\beta$-Bi$_2$Pd surface display Yu-Shiba-Rusinov bound states, detected as pairs of intra-gap excitations in the tunneling spectra. We formed Cr dimers by atomic manipulation and found that their intra-gap features appear either shifted or split with respect to single atoms. The spectral variations reveal that the magnetic coupling of the dimer changes between ferromagnetic and antiferromagnetic depending on its disposition on the surface, in good agreement with density functional theory simulations. These results prove that superconducting intra-gap state spectroscopy is an accurate tool to detect the magnetic ordering of atomic scale structures.

Author(s): Saban M. Hus, X.-G. Zhang, Giang D. Nguyen, Wonhee Ko, Arthur P. Baddorf, Yong P. Chen, and An-Ping Li

We demonstrate a new method for the detection of the spin-chemical potential in topological insulators using spin-polarized four-probe scanning tunneling microscopy on in situ cleaved Bi2Te2Se surfaces. Two-dimensional (2D) surface and 3D bulk conductions are separated quantitatively via variable pr...

[Phys. Rev. Lett. 119, 137202] Published Wed Sep 27, 2017

Atomically precise graphene nanoribbon heterojunctions from a single molecular precursor

Nature Nanotechnology, Published online: 25 September 2017; doi:10.1038/nnano.2017.155

Bottom-up fabrication of GNR heterojunctions exhibiting atomically perfect heterojunction interfaces can be obtained from a single molecular precursor via post-growth modification

Author(s): Michele Reticcioli, Martin Setvin, Xianfeng Hao, Peter Flauger, Georg Kresse, Michael Schmid, Ulrike Diebold, and Cesare Franchini

Surface reconstructions in cleaved crystals are generally thought to be driven by charge transfer between surface atoms. New calculations and experiments with rutile titanium dioxide exhibit a radically different mechanism based on charge trapping, which could open up novel ways of designing crystal surfaces for a range of applications.

[Phys. Rev. X 7, 031053] Published Mon Sep 25, 2017

Conformation-based signal transfer and processing at the single-molecule level

Nature Nanotechnology, Published online: 18 September 2017; doi:10.1038/nnano.2017.179

A specific molecular conformation serves as an information carrier for signal transfer and processing in a molecular device.

Nature Physics. doi:10.1038/nphys4264

Authors: Seung-Hwan Do, Sang-Youn Park, Junki Yoshitake, Joji Nasu, Yukitoshi Motome, Yong Seung Kwon, D. T. Adroja, D. J. Voneshen, Kyoo Kim, T.-H. Jang, J.-H. Park, Kwang-Yong Choi & Sungdae Ji

Geometrical constraints to the electronic degrees of freedom within condensed-matter systems often give rise to topological quantum states of matter such as fractional quantum Hall states, topological insulators, and Weyl semimetals. In magnetism, theoretical studies predict an entangled magnetic quantum state with topological ordering and fractionalized spin excitations, the quantum spin liquid. In particular, the so-called Kitaev spin model, consisting of a network of spins on a honeycomb lattice, is predicted to host Majorana fermions as its excitations. By means of a combination of specific heat measurements and inelastic neutron scattering experiments, we demonstrate the emergence of Majorana fermions in single crystals of α-RuCl3, an experimental realization of the Kitaev spin lattice. The specific heat data unveils a two-stage release of magnetic entropy that is characteristic of localized and itinerant Majorana fermions. The neutron scattering results corroborate this picture by revealing quasielastic excitations at low energies around the Brillouin zone centre and an hour-glass-like magnetic continuum at high energies. Our results confirm the presence of Majorana fermions in the Kitaev quantum spin liquid and provide an opportunity to build a unified conceptual framework for investigating fractionalized excitations in condensed matter.

Nature Materials. doi:10.1038/nmat4987

Authors: K. Kuroda, T. Tomita, M.-T. Suzuki, C. Bareille, A. A. Nugroho, P. Goswami, M. Ochi, M. Ikhlas, M. Nakayama, S. Akebi, R. Noguchi, R. Ishii, N. Inami, K. Ono, H. Kumigashira, A. Varykhalov, T. Muro, T. Koretsune, R. Arita, S. Shin, Takeshi Kondo & S. Nakatsuji

Weyl fermions have been observed as three-dimensional, gapless topological excitations in weakly correlated, inversion-symmetry-breaking semimetals. However, their realization in spontaneously time-reversal-symmetry-breaking phases of strongly correlated materials has so far remained hypothetical. Here, we report experimental evidence for magnetic Weyl fermions in Mn3Sn, a non-collinear antiferromagnet that exhibits a large anomalous Hall effect, even at room temperature. Detailed comparison between angle-resolved photoemission spectroscopy (ARPES) measurements and density functional theory (DFT) calculations reveals significant bandwidth renormalization and damping effects due to the strong correlation among Mn 3d electrons. Magnetotransport measurements provide strong evidence for the chiral anomaly of Weyl fermions—namely, the emergence of positive magnetoconductance only in the presence of parallel electric and magnetic fields. Since weak magnetic fields (approximately 10 mT) are adequate to control the distribution of Weyl points and the large fictitious fields (equivalent to approximately a few hundred T) produced by them in momentum space, our discovery lays the foundation for a new field of science and technology involving the magnetic Weyl excitations of strongly correlated electron systems such as Mn3Sn.

Nature Materials. doi:10.1038/nmat4990

Authors: Kab-Jin Kim, Se Kwon Kim, Yuushou Hirata, Se-Hyeok Oh, Takayuki Tono, Duck-Ho Kim, Takaya Okuno, Woo Seung Ham, Sanghoon Kim, Gyoungchoon Go, Yaroslav Tserkovnyak, Arata Tsukamoto, Takahiro Moriyama, Kyung-Jin Lee & Teruo Ono

Antiferromagnetic spintronics is an emerging research field which aims to utilize antiferromagnets as core elements in spintronic devices. A central motivation towards this direction is that antiferromagnetic spin dynamics is expected to be much faster than its ferromagnetic counterpart. Recent theories indeed predicted faster dynamics of antiferromagnetic domain walls (DWs) than ferromagnetic DWs. However, experimental investigations of antiferromagnetic spin dynamics have remained unexplored, mainly because of the magnetic field immunity of antiferromagnets. Here we show that fast field-driven antiferromagnetic spin dynamics is realized in ferrimagnets at the angular momentum compensation point TA. Using rare earth–3d-transition metal ferrimagnetic compounds where net magnetic moment is nonzero at TA, the field-driven DW mobility is remarkably enhanced up to 20 km s−1 T−1. The collective coordinate approach generalized for ferrimagnets and atomistic spin model simulations show that this remarkable enhancement is a consequence of antiferromagnetic spin dynamics at TA. Our finding allows us to investigate the physics of antiferromagnetic spin dynamics and highlights the importance of tuning of the angular momentum compensation point of ferrimagnets, which could be a key towards ferrimagnetic spintronics.

We have performed density functional theory calculation and tight binging analysis in order to investigate the mechanism for the giant Rashba-type spin splitting (RSS) observed in Bi/Ag(111). We find that local orbital angular momentum induces momentum and spin dependent charge distribution which results in spin-dependent hopping. We show that the spin-dependent interatomic-hopping in Bi/Ag(111) works as a strong effective field and induces the giant RSS, indicating that the giant RSS is driven by hopping, not by a uniform electric field. The effective field from the hopping energy difference amounts to be ~18 V/{\AA}. This new perspective on the RSS gives us a hint for the giant RSS mechanism in general and should provide a strategy for designing new RSS materials by controlling spin-dependence of hopping energy between the neighboring atomic layers.

Real-space imaging of non-collinear antiferromagnetic order with a single-spin magnetometer

Nature 549, 7671 (2017). doi:10.1038/nature23656

Authors: I. Gross, W. Akhtar, V. Garcia, L. J. Martínez, S. Chouaieb, K. Garcia, C. Carrétéro, A. Barthélémy, P. Appel, P. Maletinsky, J.-V. Kim, J. Y. Chauleau, N. Jaouen, M. Viret, M. Bibes, S. Fusil & V. Jacques

Although ferromagnets have many applications, their large magnetization and the resulting energy cost for switching magnetic moments bring into question their suitability for reliable low-power spintronic devices. Non-collinear antiferromagnetic systems do not suffer from this problem, and often have extra functionalities: non-collinear spin order may break space-inversion symmetry and thus allow electric-field control of magnetism, or may produce emergent spin–orbit effects that enable efficient spin–charge interconversion. To harness these traits for next-generation spintronics, the nanoscale control and imaging capabilities that are now routine for ferromagnets must be developed for antiferromagnetic systems. Here, using a non-invasive, scanning single-spin magnetometer based on a nitrogen–vacancy defect in diamond, we demonstrate real-space visualization of non-collinear antiferromagnetic order in a magnetic thin film at room temperature. We image the spin cycloid of a multiferroic bismuth ferrite (BiFeO3) thin film and extract a period of about 70 nanometres, consistent with values determined by macroscopic diffraction. In addition, we take advantage of the magnetoelectric coupling present in BiFeO3 to manipulate the cycloid propagation direction by an electric field. Besides highlighting the potential of nitrogen–vacancy magnetometry for imaging complex antiferromagnetic orders at the nanoscale, these results demonstrate how BiFeO3 can be used in the design of reconfigurable nanoscale spin textures.

We consider a one-dimensional system combining local magnetic moments and a delocalized metallic band on top of a superconducting substrate. This system can describe a chain of magnetic impurities with both localized polarized orbitals and delocalized s-like orbitals or a conducting wire with embedded magnetic impurities. We study the interplay between the one-dimensional Shiba band physics arising from the interplay between magnetic moments and the substrate and the delocalized wire-like conduction band on top of the superconductor. We derive an effective low-energy Hamiltonian in terms of two coupled asymmetric Kitaev-like Hamiltonians and analyze its topological properties. We have found that this system can host multiple Majorana bound states at its extremities provided a magnetic mirror symmetry is present. We compute the phase diagram of the system depending on the magnetic exchange interactions, the impurity distance and especially the coupling between both bands. In presence of inhomogeneities which typically break this magnetic mirror symmetry, we show that the coexistence of a Shiba and wire delocalized topological band can drive the system into a non-topological regime with a splitting of Majorana bound states.

Author(s): W. Izumida, L. Milz, M. Marganska, and M. Grifoni

We investigate the spectrum of finite-length carbon nanotubes in the presence of onsite and nearest-neighbor superconducting pairing terms. A one-dimensional ladder-type lattice model is developed to explore the low-energy spectrum and the nature of the electronic states. We find that zero energy ed...

[Phys. Rev. B 96, 125414] Published Mon Sep 11, 2017

Author(s): H. Bentmann, H. Maaß, E. E. Krasovskii, T. R. F. Peixoto, C. Seibel, M. Leandersson, T. Balasubramanian, and F. Reinert

A comprehensive understanding of spin-polarized photoemission is crucial for accessing the electronic structure of spin-orbit coupled materials. Yet, the impact of the final state in the photoemission process on the photoelectron spin has been difficult to assess in these systems. We present experim...

[Phys. Rev. Lett. 119, 106401] Published Tue Sep 05, 2017

The large spin orbit interaction in rare earth atoms implies a strong coupling between their charge and spin degrees of freedom. We formulate the coupling between voltage and the local magnetic moments of rare earth atoms with partially filled 4f shell at the interface between an insulator and a metal. The rare earth-mediated torques allow power-efficient control of spintronic devices by electric field-induced ferromagnetic resonance and magnetization switching.

Direct instrumental identification of catalytically active surface sites

Nature 549, 7670 (2017). doi:10.1038/nature23661

Authors: Jonas H. K. Pfisterer, Yunchang Liang, Oliver Schneider & Aliaksandr S. Bandarenka

The activity of heterogeneous catalysts—which are involved in some 80 per cent of processes in the chemical and energy industries—is determined by the electronic structure of specific surface sites that offer optimal binding of reaction intermediates. Directly identifying and monitoring these sites during a reaction should therefore provide insight that might aid the targeted development of heterogeneous catalysts and electrocatalysts (those that participate in electrochemical reactions) for practical applications. The invention of the scanning tunnelling microscope (STM) and the electrochemical STM promised to deliver such imaging capabilities, and both have indeed contributed greatly to our atomistic understanding of heterogeneous catalysis. But although the STM has been used to probe and initiate surface reactions, and has even enabled local measurements of reactivity in some systems, it is not generally thought to be suited to the direct identification of catalytically active surface sites under reaction conditions. Here we demonstrate, however, that common STMs can readily map the catalytic activity of surfaces with high spatial resolution: we show that by monitoring relative changes in the tunnelling current noise, active sites can be distinguished in an almost quantitative fashion according to their ability to catalyse the hydrogen-evolution reaction or the oxygen-reduction reaction. These data allow us to evaluate directly the importance and relative contribution to overall catalyst activity of different defects and sites at the boundaries between two materials. With its ability to deliver such information and its ready applicability to different systems, we anticipate that our method will aid the rational design of heterogeneous catalysts.

In magnetic exchange force microscopy, images contain the topographic contrast mixed with the spin contrast on the sample surface. In this study, we propose a new method of magnetic resonance force microscopy using ferromagnetic resonance to extract only the spin contrast. In this method, the magnetization of a magnetic cantilever is modulated by ferromagnetic resonance to separate the spin contrast and topographic contrast. We succeeded in obtaining a spin image of Ni atoms on a NiO (0 0 1) surface. Furthermore, we successfully detected the superexchange interaction between the tip apex atom and the second layer of Ni atoms.

A one-dimensional semiconductor nanowire proximitized by a nearby superconductor may become a topological superconductor hosting localized Majorana zero modes at the two wire ends in the presence of spin-orbit coupling and Zeeman spin splitting (arising from an external magnetic field). The hallmark of the presence of such Majorana zero modes is the appearance of a zero-temperature quantized zero-bias conductance peak in the tunneling spectroscopy of the Majorana nanowire. We theoretically study the temperature and the tunnel coupling dependence of the tunneling conductance in such nanowires to understand possible intrinsic deviations from the predicted conductance quantization. We find that the full temperature and the tunneling transmission dependence of the tunnel conductance does not obey any simple scaling relation, and estimating the zero-temperature conductance from finite-temperature and finite-tunnel-broadening tunneling data is difficult in general. A scaling relation, however, does hold at the extreme weak-tunneling low-temperature limit where the conductance depends only on the dimensionless ratio of the temperature and tunnel broadening. We also consider the tunneling contributions from nontopological Andreev bound states which may produce almost-zero-bias conductance peaks, which are not easy to distinguish from the Majorana-induced zero-bias peaks, finding that the nontopological almost-zero-modes associated with Andreev bound states manifest similar temperature and transmission dependence as the topological Majorana modes. We comment on the Zeeman splitting dependence of the zero-bias conductance peak for finite temperature and tunnel coupling.

Angle- and temperature-dependent vectorial magnetometry measurements are necessary to disentangle the effective magnetic symmetry in magnetic nanostructures. Here we present a detailed study on an Fe(1 0 0) thin film system with competing collinear biaxial (four-fold symmetry) and uniaxial (two-fold) magnetic anisotropies, carried out with our recently developed full angular/broad temperature range/vectorial-resolved magneto-optical Kerr effect magnetometer, named TRISTAN. The data give direct views on the angular and temperature dependence of the magnetization reversal pathways, from which characteristic axes, remanences, critical fields, domain wall types, and effective magnetic symmetry are obtained. In particular, although the remanence shows four-fold angular symmetry for all investigated temperatures (15 K–400 K), the critical fields show strong temperature and angular dependencies and the reversal mechanism changes for specific angles at a given (angle-dependent) critical...