Aspects of spin-polarized scanning tunneling microscopy at the atomic scale: experiment, theory, and simulation

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

doi:10.1016/j.susc.2004.05.011

Cited by 20 publications

(33 citation statements)

References 31 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: 95%

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: 95%

Spin mapping at the nanoscale and atomic scale

2009

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“…We have used a plane-wave pseudopotential approach as implemented in SFHIngX 17 . Details of the calculations are described elsewhere 10 . To describe the surface electronic structure a plane-wave cutoff energy of 50Ry and a slab consisting of four layers has been used.…”

Section: Theoretical Approachmentioning

confidence: 99%

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

Yang

Smith

et al. 2006

Phys. Rev. B

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“…In SP-STM the total tunneling current can be decomposed into a non-spin-polarized (topographic), I TOPO , and a spin-polarized (magnetic) part, I MAGN [15,90,92,93],…”

Section: Theoretical Model Of Sp-stm Within the 3d Wkb Approachmentioning

confidence: 99%

“…Wortmann et al [15] introduced its spin-polarized version applicable to complex noncollinear surface spin structures. Heinze [90] combined it with the atom superposition method [93,94]. Note that the SP-STM method of Heinze does not consider bias voltage dependence of the tunneling current and related quantities.…”

Section: Theoretical Model Of Sp-stm Within the 3d Wkb Approachmentioning

confidence: 99%

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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Aspects of spin-polarized scanning tunneling microscopy at the atomic scale: experiment, theory, and simulation

Cited by 20 publications

References 31 publications

Spin mapping at the nanoscale and atomic scale

Spin mapping at the nanoscale and atomic scale

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

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

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