Probing the Exchange Interaction Between Two Magnetic Molecules in 3D Space

ORAL

Abstract

The exchange interaction is responsible for magnetic ordering in materials and is the principal means by which two nearby spins interact. Previous scanning tunneling microscopy studies of magnetic atoms on surfaces have explored the effects of exchange on their spin states, but in these experiments, the localized spins can only be positioned at fixed lattice adsorption sites in the two-dimensional surface plane. Here we use inelastic electron tunneling spectroscopy to probe the exchange interaction between the spins of two magnetic molecules by attaching one to a STM tip and positioning it in 3D space above another molecule adsorbed on a surface. We find that the exchange coupling requires re-diagonalization of the two-molecule spin Hamiltonian and depends sensitively on their relative positions. Our results demonstrate the ability to characterize and map the exchange coupling strength between spin densities in three dimensions and provide new opportunities to probe the coupling between quantum states with sub-Angstrom resolution.

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Presenters

  • Gregory Czap

    University of California, Irvine, Physics, Univ of California - Irvine, Department of Physics and Astronomy, Univ of California - Irvine

Authors

  • Gregory Czap

    University of California, Irvine, Physics, Univ of California - Irvine, Department of Physics and Astronomy, Univ of California - Irvine

  • Peter Wagner

    University of California, Irvine, Department of Physics and Astronomy, Univ of California - Irvine

  • Feng Xue

    Department of Physics , Fudan University, Fudan University

  • Peng Wang

    University of California, Irvine

  • Ruqian Wu

    Univ of California - Irvine, Department of Physics and Astronomy, Univ of California - Irvine, University of California, Irvine, Department of Physics and Astronomy, University of California, Irvine, Physics, Univ of California - Irvine

  • Wilson Ho

    Physics and Astronomy, Univ of California - Irvine, Department of Physics and Astronomy, Department of Chemistry, University of California, Irvine, University of California, Irvine, Department of Physics and Astronomy, and Department of Chemistry, University of California, Irvine, Univ of California - Irvine, Physics, Univ of California - Irvine, Department of Physics and Astronomy, Univ of California - Irvine