Electronic Transport in Single-Molecule Magnets on Metallic Surfaces

TL;DR

This paper investigates electron transport in single-molecule magnets on metallic surfaces, revealing stepwise conductance behavior influenced by magnetic fields and quantum tunneling, supported by a combined exchange and Landau-Zener theoretical model.

Contribution

It introduces a rigorous theoretical framework combining exchange and Landau-Zener models to explain conductance steps and oscillations in single-molecule magnets.

Findings

Conductance exhibits stepwise behavior with increasing longitudinal field.

Conductance steps are maximized at specific field sweeping speeds.

Oscillations in conductance occur as a function of transverse magnetic field.

Abstract

An electron transport is studied in the system which consists of scanning tunneling microscopy-single molecule magnet-metal. Due to quantum tunneling of magnetization in single-molecule magnet, linear response conductance exhibits stepwise behavior with increasing longitudinal field and each step is maximized at a certain value of field sweeping speed. The conductance at each step oscillates as a function of the additional transverse magnetic field along the hard axis. Rigorous theory is presented that combines the exchange model with the Landau-Zener model.