1/f Spin Noise and a Single Spin Detection with STM

TL;DR

This paper introduces a new method for single spin detection using 1/f spin current noise in STM, highlighting a localized peak at the Larmor frequency in the current spectrum as a signature.

Contribution

It proposes a novel detection mechanism based on 1/f spin noise and explains observed spectral lineshapes and linewidths in STM measurements.

Findings

Detection signal-to-noise ratio is approximately one.

Larmor frequency peak appears in the power spectrum of current fluctuations.

Asymmetric lineshapes are consistent with tunneling electron sampling effects.

Abstract

We propose a novel mechanism for single spin detection based on the 1/f spin current noise. We postulate the 1/f spin noise for the tunneling current, similar to the ubiquitous 1/f noise in magnetic systems. Magnetic coupling between tunneling electrons and localized spin S then leads to the peak at Larmor frequency in the power spectrum of the electric current fluctuations $I^2_{\omega}$. The elevated noise in the current spectrum will be spatially localized near the magnetic site. The difference in the power spectra taken at the Larmor frequency and elsewhere would reveal the peak in the spectrum. We argue that signal to noise ratio for this mechanism is on the order one. In addition we discuss the asymmetric lineshapes observed regularly with this measurement. We show that such lineshapes are in accordance to the random sampling done with the tunneling electrons. Yet, this predicts a linewidth at least one order of magnitude larger than observed experimentally which is likely to be due to electrostatic repulsion between the tunneling electrons and temporal correlations in the tunneling process.