Tuning emergent magnetism in a Hund's impurity

The recently proposed concept of a Hund's metal--a metal in which electron correlations are driven by Hund's rule coupling-can be used to explain the exotic magnetic and electronic behaviour of strongly correlated electron systems of multi-orbital metallic materials. Tuning the abundance of parameters that determine these materials is, however, experimentally challenging. Here, we show that the basic constituent of a Hund's metal--a Hund's impurity--can be realized using a single iron atom adsorbed on a platinum surface, a system that comprises a magnetic moment in the presence of strong charge fluctuations. The magnetic properties can be controlled by using the tip of a scanning tunnelling microscope to change the binding site and degree of hydrogenation of the 3d transition-metal atom. We are able to experimentally explore a regime of four almost degenerate energy scales (Zeeman energy, temperature, Kondo temperature and magnetic anisotropy) and probe the magnetic excitations with the microscope tip. The regime of our Hund's impurity can be tuned from an emergent magnetic moment to a multi-orbital Kondo state, and the system could be used to test predictions of advanced many-body theories for non-Fermi liquids in quantum magnets or unconventional superconductors.

Spin excitations of individual Fe atoms on Pt(111): impact of the site-dependent giant substrate polarization

We demonstrate using inelastic scanning tunneling spectroscopy and simulations based on density functional theory that the amplitude and sign of the magnetic anisotropy energy for a single Fe atom adsorbed onto the Pt(111) surface can be manipulated by modifying the adatom binding site. Since the magnitude of the measured anisotropy is remarkably small, up to an order of magnitude smaller than previously reported, electron-hole excitations are weak and thus the spin excitation exhibits long lived precessional lifetimes compared to the values found for the same adatom on noble metal surfaces.

Controllable magnetic doping of the surface state of a topological insulator

A combined experimental and theoretical study of doping individual Fe atoms into Bi(2)Se(3) is presented. It is shown through a scanning tunneling microscopy study that single Fe atoms initially located at hollow sites on top of the surface (adatoms) can be incorporated into subsurface layers by thermally activated diffusion. Angle-resolved photoemission spectroscopy in combination with ab initio calculations suggest that the doping behavior changes from electron donation for the Fe adatom to neutral or electron acceptance for Fe incorporated into substitutional Bi sites. According to first principles calculations within density functional theory, these Fe substitutional impurities retain a large magnetic moment, thus presenting an alternative scheme for magnetically doping the topological surface state. For both types of Fe doping, we see no indication of a gap at the Dirac point.

In-plane magnetic anisotropy of Fe atoms on Bi2Se3(111)

The robustness of the gapless topological surface state hosted by a 3D topological insulator against perturbations of magnetic origin has been the focus of recent investigations. We present a comprehensive study of the magnetic properties of Fe impurities on the prototypical 3D topological insulator Bi(2)Se(3) using local low-temperature scanning tunneling spectroscopy and integral x-ray magnetic circular dichroism techniques. Single Fe adatoms on the Bi(2)Se(3) surface, in the coverage range ≈ 1% of a monolayer, are heavily relaxed into the surface and exhibit a magnetic easy axis within the surface plane, contrary to what was assumed in recent investigations on the supposed opening of a gap. Using ab initio approaches, we demonstrate that an in-plane easy axis arises from the combination of the crystal field and dynamic hybridization effects.