Energy-dependent contrast in atomic-scale spin-polarized scanning tunneling microscopy of<mml:math xmlns:mml="http://www.w3.org/1998/Math/MathML" display="inline"><mml:mrow><mml:msub><mml:mi mathvariant="normal">Mn</mml:mi><mml:mn>3</mml:mn></mml:msub><mml:msub><mml:mi mathvariant="normal">N</mml:mi><mml:mn>2</mml:mn></mml:msub></mml:mrow></mml:math>(010): Experiment and first-principles theory

Yang, Rong; Yang, Haiqiang; Smith, Arthur R.; Dick, A.; Neugebauer, Jörg

doi:10.1103/physrevb.74.115409

Cited by 38 publications

(8 citation statements)

References 23 publications

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“…For instance, using in-planesensitive Mn-coated W tips, the antiferromagnetically coupled rows of Mn1 sites on the Mn 3 N 2 ͑010͒ surface were directly revealed even at room temperature ͑Yang et al., 2002;Smith et al, 2004Smith et al, , 2005Yang et al, 2006͒. The SP-STM images on this particular surface were found to contain two components, the nonpolarized and the spin-polarized contributions, exhibiting spatial periods of 0.6 and 1.2 nm, respectively ͑Fig. 50͒.…”

Section: Antiferromagnetic Nitrides and Ferrimagnetic Oxidesmentioning

confidence: 99%

Spin mapping at the nanoscale and atomic scale

2009

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The direct observation of spin structures with atomic-scale resolution, a long-time dream in condensed matter research, recently became a reality based on the development of spin-sensitive scanning probe methods, such as spin-polarized scanning-tunneling microscopy ͑SP-STM͒ and magnetic exchange force microscopy ͑MExFM͒. This article reviews the basic principles and methods of SP-STM and MExFM and describes recently achieved milestones in the application of these techniques to metallic and electrically insulating magnetic nanostructures. Discoveries of novel types of magnetic order at the nanoscale are presented as well as challenges for the future, including studies of local spin excitations based on spin-resolved inelastic tunneling spectroscopy and measurements of damping forces in MExFM experiments.

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Section: Antiferromagnetic Nitrides and Ferrimagnetic Oxidesmentioning

confidence: 99%

Spin mapping at the nanoscale and atomic scale

2009

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“…Note that the presented orbital-dependent method can also be applied to magnetic systems taking into account the orbital-decomposed magnetization PDOS of the tip and sample together with the orbital dependent tunneling transmission in Eq. (55). As it was pointed out by Ferriani et al [76], the spin polarization in the vacuum can have an opposite sign than within the tip apex atom, and this sign change is also accompanied by different dominating orbital characters.…”

Section: Orbital Dependent Tunneling Within the 3d Wkb Approachmentioning

confidence: 80%

“…Another limitation is the uniform vacuum decay κ of the electron states for different orbital symmetries in Eq. (55). At the moment, the orbital effects are contained in the geometry factor, Eq.…”

Section: Discussionmentioning

confidence: 99%

“…Similarly, the sample electronic structure has been found responsible for a contrast reversal in Ref. [55].…”

Section: Tip Effects On the Sp-stm Imagesmentioning

confidence: 99%

“…A very few works focused on the investigation of the bias dependent magnetic contrast so far. Among those, a magnetic contrast reversal was reported in two different magnetic systems [55,56], and the effect was related to the surface electronic structure rather than to the effect of the tip. In another study, such contrast reversals were observed during the scanning with the STM tip at fixed bias, and this was identified to be due to the magnetic switching of the tip [46].…”

Section: Introductionmentioning

confidence: 99%

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Three-dimensional Wentzel-Kramers-Brillouin approach for the simulation of scanning tunneling microscopy and spectroscopy

2013

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We review the recently developed three-dimensional (3D) atom-superposition approach for simulating scanning tunneling microscopy (STM) and spectroscopy (STS) based on ab initio electronic structure data. In the method, contributions from individual electron tunneling transitions between the tip apex atom and each of the sample surface atoms are summed up assuming the one-dimensional (1D) Wentzel-Kramers-Brillouin (WKB) approximation in all these transitions. This 3D WKB tunneling model is extremely suitable to simulate spin-polarized STM and STS on surfaces exhibiting a complex noncollinear magnetic structure, i.e., without a global spin quantization axis, at very low computational cost. The tip electronic structure from first principles can also be incorporated into the model, that is often assumed to be constant in energy in the vast majority of the related literature, which could lead to a misinterpretation of experimental findings. Using this approach, we highlight some of the electron tunneling features on a prototype frustrated hexagonal antiferromagnetic Cr monolayer on Ag(111) surface. We obtain useful theoretical insights into the simulated quantities that is expected to help the correct evaluation of experimental results. By extending the method to incorporate a simple orbital dependent electron tunneling transmission, we reinvestigate the bias voltage-and tip-dependent contrast inversion effect on the W(110) surface. STM images calculated using this orbital dependent model agree reasonably well with Tersoff-Hamann and Bardeen results. The computational efficiency of the model is remarkable as the k-point samplings of the surface and tip Brillouin zones do not affect the computational time, in contrast to the Bardeen method. In a certain case we obtain a relative computational time gain of 8500 compared to the Bardeen calculation, without the loss of quality. We discuss the advantages and limitations of the 3D WKB method, and show further ways to improve and extend it.

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STM contrast inversion of the Fe(110) surface

Mándi

Palotás

2014

Applied Surface Science

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We extend the orbital-dependent electron tunneling model implemented within the threedimensional (3D) Wentzel-Kramers-Brillouin (WKB) atom-superposition approach to simulate spin-polarized scanning tunneling microscopy (SP-STM) above magnetic surfaces. The tunneling model is based on the electronic structure data of the magnetic tip and surface obtained from first principles. Applying our method, we analyze the orbital contributions to the tunneling current, and study the nature of atomic contrast reversals occurring on constant-current SP-STM images above the Fe(110) surface. We find an interplay of orbital-dependent tunneling and spin-polarization effects responsible for the contrast inversion, and we discuss its dependence on the bias voltage, on the tip-sample distance, and on the tip orbital composition.

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Energy-dependent contrast in atomic-scale spin-polarized scanning tunneling microscopy ofMn3N2(010): Experiment and first-principles theory

Abstract: The technique of spin-polarized scanning tunneling microscopy is investigated for its use in determining fine details of surface magnetic structure down to the atomic scale. As a model sample, the row-wise anti-ferromagnetic

Cited by 38 publications

References 23 publications

Spin mapping at the nanoscale and atomic scale

Spin mapping at the nanoscale and atomic scale

Three-dimensional Wentzel-Kramers-Brillouin approach for the simulation of scanning tunneling microscopy and spectroscopy

STM contrast inversion of the Fe(110) surface

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