Work

Inelastic electron tunneling through adatoms and molecular nanomagnets

Year: 2025

Type: article

Abstract: We discuss a theoretical description of the inelastic electron tunneling spectra (IETS) of a magnetic nanosystem (an atom or a molecule) adsorbed on a solid surface measured in a scanning tunneling microscope (STM). We represent the nanosystem by means of a cluster Hubbard model, which allows us to study scenarios when the tunneling electrons sequentially interact with several magnetic centers inside the nanosystem or when the magnetic centers are made out of heavy atoms with a strong spin-orbit coupling and large orbital moments. The sequential tunneling through multiple centers is illustrated on an adatom probed by an STM tip with a nickelocene molecule attached to it. For atoms with large orbital moments, we find that the exchange interaction between the atom and the spin s of the tunneling electron is richer than the usually assumed Heisenberg form S · s or J · s , where S and J are the spin and total orbital moments of the atom. For atoms in axially symmetric environments, the J · s exchange would restrict the transitions accessible by IETS to those fulfilling | Δ J z | ≤ 1 , where J z is the projection of the total angular momentum to the symmetry axis, whereas we arrive at a more permissive selection rule | Δ J z | ≤ 2 ℓ + 1 , where ℓ is the orbital momentum quantum number of the partially filled atomic shell carrying the magnetic moment.

Source: Physical review. B./Physical review. B

DOI: 10.1103/9sg1-j1bs

Authors: Daria Kývala, Jindřich Kolorenč

Institution: FZU - Institute of Physics of the Czech Academy of Sciences

Language: English

Topic: Magnetism in coordination complexes

Subfield: Electronic, Optical and Magnetic Materials

Field: Materials Science

Domain: Physical Sciences

Open Access status: hybrid

Funder: Ministerstvo Školství, Mládeže a Tělovýchovy

Awards: G208869049, G313257413