Speaker
Harald Brune
(EPFL)
Description
Until two years ago, the smallest permanent magnets were single molecule magnets. Surface Science has opened up an alternative approach to this field in studying the magnetic properties of single atoms adsorbed onto surfaces. Very recently a major breakthrough was achieved by identifying systems where a single surface adsorbed atom are stable magnets. Ho atoms on two monolayer thick MgO(100) films grown on Ag(100) where found to exhibit magnetic remanence up to 30 K. Very recent STM experiments show stable magnetization over two hours in external fields of 8 T that are applied opposite to the magnetization of the atoms and at temperatures of 30 K; the first spontaneous switching is observed at 45 K.
Author
Harald Brune
(EPFL)
