Giant magnetic anisotropy energy and long coherence time of uranium substitution on defected Al2O3(0001)

TL;DR

This study demonstrates that substituting uranium atoms on defected Al2O3(0001) surfaces yields nanomagnets with giant magnetic anisotropy energy and long coherence times, promising for quantum information technologies.

Contribution

It introduces a novel approach using uranium substitution on Al2O3 surfaces to achieve stable nanomagnets with high magnetic anisotropy and long coherence times.

Findings

Magnetic anisotropy energy up to 48 meV per uranium atom.

Long coherence time of approximately 1.6 milliseconds.

High structural stability of uranium substitution on Al2O3(0001).

Abstract

Nanomagnets with giant magnetic anisotropy energy and long coherence time are desired for various technological innovations such as quantum information procession and storage. Based on the first-principles calculations and model analyses, we demonstrate that a single uranium atom substituting Al on the Al2O3(0001) surface may have high structural stability and large magnetic anisotropy energy up to 48 meV per uranium atom. As the magnetization resides in the localized f-shell and is not much involved in chemical bonding with neighbors, long coherence time up to ~1.6 mS can be achieved for the quantum spin states. These results suggest a new strategy for the search of ultrasmall magnetic units for diverse applications in the quantum information era.