Center for Computational Materials Science, Naval Research Laboratory, Washington, DC 20375, USA.
Nat Commun. 2010 Aug 24;1:58. doi: 10.1038/ncomms1056.
It has been a long-standing goal to create magnetism in a non-magnetic material by manipulating its structure at the nanoscale. Many structural defects have unpaired spins; an ordered arrangement of these can create a magnetically ordered state. In this article we predict theoretically that stepped silicon surfaces stabilized by adsorbed gold achieve this state by self-assembly, creating chains of polarized electron spins with atomically precise structural order. The spins are localized at silicon step edges having the form of graphitic ribbons. The predicted magnetic state is supported by recent experimental observations, such as the coexistence of double- and triple-period distortions and the absence of edge states in photoemission. Ordered arrays of surface spins can be accessed by probes with single-spin sensitivity, such as spin-polarized scanning tunnelling microscopy. The integration of structural and magnetic order is crucial for technologies involving spin-based computation and storage at the atomic level.
长期以来，人们一直致力于通过操纵纳米尺度的结构在非磁性材料中产生磁性。许多结构缺陷具有未配对的自旋；这些自旋的有序排列可以产生磁有序状态。在本文中，我们从理论上预测，通过自组装，吸附金稳定的阶梯状硅表面可以达到这种状态，从而形成具有原子级精确结构有序的极化电子自旋链。自旋局域在具有石墨带形式的硅阶边缘。最近的实验观察结果支持了所预测的磁性状态，例如双周期和三周期扭曲的共存以及光发射中不存在边缘态。通过具有单自旋灵敏度的探针（如自旋极化扫描隧道显微镜）可以访问表面自旋的有序阵列。结构和磁性有序的集成对于涉及基于自旋的计算和原子级存储的技术至关重要。
