Three-atom magnets with strong substrate coupling: a gateway towards non-collinear spin processing

TL;DR

This paper demonstrates that three-atom magnetic clusters strongly coupled to a non-collinear substrate can store and manipulate spin information, enabling new possibilities for spin-based information technology.

Contribution

It introduces a method to write, read, and store spin information in strongly coupled three-atom clusters with substrate-mediated non-collinear interactions, advancing spin processing capabilities.

Findings

Stable spin storage for hours in three-atom clusters

Ability to switch the cluster into a Kondo screened state by atomic repositioning

Proposal of a four-bit spin register using non-collinear substrate interactions

Abstract

A cluster composed of a few magnetic atoms assembled on the surface of a nonmagnetic substrate is one suitable realization of a bit for future concepts of spin-based information technology. The prevalent approach to achieve magnetic stability of the bit is decoupling the cluster spin from substrate conduction electrons in order to suppress spin-flips destabilizing the bit. However, this route entails less flexibility in tailoring the coupling between the bits which is ultimately needed for spin-processing. Here, we show using a spin-resolved scanning tunneling microscope, that we can write, read, and store spin information for hours in clusters of only three atoms strongly coupled to a substrate featuring a cloud of non-collinearly polarized host atoms, a so called non-collinear giant moment cluster (GMC). The GMC can be driven into a Kondo screened state by simply moving one of its atoms to a different site. Owing to the exceptional atomic tunability of the non-collinear substrate mediated Dzyaloshinskii-Moriya interaction, novel concepts of spin-based information technology get within reach, as we demonstrate by a logical scheme for a four-bit register.