Max-Planck-Institut für Mikrostrukturphysik, Weinberg 2, D-06120 Halle/Saale, Germany.
Science. 2010 Feb 12;327(5967):843-6. doi: 10.1126/science.1183224.
Quantum interference is a coherent quantum phenomenon that takes place in confined geometries. Using spin-polarized scanning tunneling microscopy, we found that quantum interference of electrons causes spatial modulation of spin polarization within a single magnetic nanostructure. We observed changes in both the sign and magnitude of the spin polarization on a subnanometer scale. A comparison of our experimental results with ab initio calculations shows that at a given energy, the modulation of the spin polarization can be ascribed to the difference between the spatially modulated local density of states of the majority spin and the nonmodulated minority spin contribution.
量子干涉是一种在受限几何结构中发生的相干量子现象。使用自旋极化扫描隧道显微镜，我们发现电子的量子干涉导致单个磁性纳米结构内的自旋极化的空间调制。我们在亚纳米尺度上观察到自旋极化的符号和幅度的变化。我们的实验结果与从头算计算的比较表明，在给定的能量下，自旋极化的调制可以归因于占据态的局域密度的空间调制与非调制的少数自旋贡献之间的差异。
