Abstract
Manganese dimers on Ag(111) are investigated with scanning tunneling microscopy and density functional calculations. Two species of dimers coexist that differ in their apparent heights and the absence or presence of submolecular structure. These species can be interconverted by electron and hole injection from the microscope tip. Calculations identify the two kinds of dimers as pristine and and show that hydrogen attachment to leads to marked changes in the dimer electronic and magnetic structure. Antiferromagnetic coupling between Mn magnetic moments in leaves its spectroscopic signature in the electronic structure of the monohydride compound.
Highlights
The ongoing miniaturization of electrical circuitry renders supported clusters of magnetic atoms promising building blocks for magnetic storage devices
Clean Mn monomers can be readily manipulated with the scanning tunneling microscopy (STM) tip [29, 30]
Approaching two Mn atoms to within a Ag(111) nearest-neighbor distance leads to the spontaneous formation of a Mn species that appears as a double-protrusion feature in constant-current STM images (Mn*2 in figure 1(a))
Summary
The ongoing miniaturization of electrical circuitry renders supported clusters of magnetic atoms promising building blocks for magnetic storage devices. Approaching two Mn atoms to within a Ag(111) nearest-neighbor distance leads to the spontaneous formation of a Mn species that appears as a double-protrusion feature in constant-current STM images (Mn*2 in figure 1(a)). Placing the tip above the center of Mn*2 and injecting holes or electrons from the STM tip at bias voltages V > 2.5 V converts Mn*2 into another species that appears as a single protrusion in constant-current STM images (Mn2 in figure 1(a)).
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