Non-collinear spin states with unique rotational sense, such as chiral spin-spirals, are recently heavily investigated because of advantages for future applications in spintronics and information technology and as potential hosts for Majorana Fermions when coupled to a superconductor. Tuning the properties of such spin states, e.g., the rotational period and sense, is a highly desirable yet difficult task. Here, we experimentally demonstrate the bottom-up assembly of a spin-spiral derived from a chain of iron atoms on a platinum substrate using the magnetic tip of a scanning tunneling microscope as a tool. We show that the spin-spiral is induced by the interplay of the Heisenberg and Dzyaloshinskii-Moriya components of the Ruderman-Kittel-Kasuya-Yosida interaction between the iron atoms. The relative strengths and signs of these two components can be adjusted by the interatomic iron distance, which enables tailoring of the rotational period and sense of the spin-spiral.

Two-dimensional (2D) magnet–superconductor hybrid systems are intensively studied due to their potential for the realization of 2D topological superconductors with Majorana edge modes. It is theoretically predicted that this quantum state is ubiquitous in spin–orbit-coupled ferromagnetic or skyrmionic 2D spin–lattices in proximity to an s -wave superconductor. However, recent examples suggest that the requirements for topological superconductivity are complicated by the multiorbital nature of the magnetic components and disorder effects. Here, we investigate Fe monolayer islands grown on a surface of the s -wave superconductor with the largest gap of all elemental superconductors, Nb, with respect to magnetism and superconductivity using spin-resolved scanning tunneling spectroscopy. We find three types of islands which differ by their reconstruction inducing disorder, the magnetism and the subgap electronic states. All three types are ferromagnetic with different coercive fields, indicating diverse exchange and anisotropy energies. On all three islands, there is finite spectral weight throughout the substrate’s energy gap at the expense of the coherence peak intensity, indicating the formation of Shiba bands overlapping with the Fermi energy. A strong lateral variation of the spectral weight of the Shiba bands signifies substantial disorder on the order of the substrate’s pairing energy with a length scale of the period of the three different reconstructions. There are neither signs of topological gaps within these bands nor of any kind of edge modes. Our work illustrates that a reconstructed growth mode of magnetic layers on superconducting surfaces is detrimental for the formation of 2D topological superconductivity.

The original version of this Article contained an error in Fig. 3 in which Fig. 3b and Fig. 3e incorrectly duplicated Fig. 2a and Fig.2d, respectively. This has now been corrected in both the PDF and HTML versions of the Article.

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Two-dimensional (2D) magnet-superconductor hybrid systems are intensively studied due to their potential for the realization of 2D topological superconductors with Majorana edge modes. It is theoretically predicted that this quantum state is ubiquitous in spin-orbit coupled ferromagnetic or skyrmionic 2D spin-lattices in proximity to an s-wave superconductor. However, recent examples suggest that the requirements for topological superconductivity are complicated by the multi-orbital nature of the magnetic components and disorder effects. Here, we investigate Fe monolayer islands grown on a surface of the s-wave superconductor with the largest gap of all elemental superconductors, Nb, with respect to magnetism and superconductivity using spin-resolved