Two magnetic atoms, one attached to the tip of a Scanning Tunneling Microscope(STM) and one adsorbed on a metal surface, each constituting a Kondo system, have been proposed as one of the simplest conceivable systems potentially exhibiting quantum critical behaviour. We have succeeded in implementing this concept experimentally for cobalt dimers clamped between an STM tip and a gold surface. Control of the tip-sample distance with sub-picometer resolution allows us to tune the interaction between the two cobalt atoms with unprecedented precision.

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We have studied the growth of Ag on bilayer high Co nanoislands on Cu(111) using scanning tunneling microscopy. Noble metal capping of magnetic nanostructures is known to influence the magnetism and knowledge of the growth is therefore important. We find that Ag preferentially nucleates on the Co nanoislands, initially leaving the free Cu sites clean. Furthermore we observe that those Co islands which are capped with Ag are almost completely capped, thus making a perfect multilayered system of Ag/Co/Cu(111). We observe a (9 × 9) reconstruction of the Ag overlayer on Co/Cu(111).