340 research outputs found
Theory of the Eigler-swith
We suggest a simple model to describe the reversible field-induced transfer
of a single Xe-atom in a scanning tunneling microscope, --- the Eigler-switch.
The inelasticly tunneling electrons give rise to fluctuating forces on and
damping of the Xe-atom resulting in an effective current dependent temperature.
The rate of transfer is controlled by the well-known Arrhenius law with this
effective temperature. The directionality of atom transfer is discussed, and
the importance of use of non-equlibrium-formalism for the electronic
environment is emphasized. The theory constitutes a formal derivation and
generalization of the so-called Desorption Induced by Multiple Electron
Transitions (DIMET) point of view.Comment: 13 pages (including 2 figures in separate LaTeX-files with
ps-\specials), REVTEX 3.
Imaging Xe with a low-temperature scanning tunneling microscope
We have obtained images of individual Xe atoms adsorbed on a Ni(110) surface using a low-temperature scanning tunneling microscope (STM). The atom-on-jellium model has been used to calculate the apparent height of a Xe atom as imaged with the STM and the result is found to be in good agreement with experiment. We conclude that the Xe 6s resonance, although lying close to the vacuum level, is the origin of the Fermi-level local state density which renders Xe ‘‘visible’’ in the STM
Surface Screening Charge and Effective Charge
The charge on an atom at a metallic surface in an electric field is defined
as the field-derivative of the force on the atom, and this is consistent with
definitions of effective charge and screening charge. This charge can be found
from the shift in the potential outside the surface when the atoms are moved.
This is used to study forces and screening on surface atoms of Ag(001)
c -- Xe as a function of external field. It is found that at low
positive (outward) fields, the Xe with a negative effective charge of -0.093
is pushed into the surface. At a field of 2.3 V \AA the charge
changes sign, and for fields greater than 4.1 V \AA the Xe experiences
an outward force. Field desorption and the Eigler switch are discussed in terms
of these results.Comment: 4 pages, 1 figure, RevTex (accepted by PRL
Atomic Scale Memory at a Silicon Surface
The limits of pushing storage density to the atomic scale are explored with a
memory that stores a bit by the presence or absence of one silicon atom. These
atoms are positioned at lattice sites along self-assembled tracks with a pitch
of 5 atom rows. The writing process involves removal of Si atoms with the tip
of a scanning tunneling microscope. The memory can be reformatted by controlled
deposition of silicon. The constraints on speed and reliability are compared
with data storage in magnetic hard disks and DNA.Comment: 13 pages, 5 figures, accepted by Nanotechnolog
First principles theory of inelastic currents in a scanning tunneling microscope
A first principles theory of inelastic tunneling between a model probe tip
and an atom adsorbed on a surface is presented, extending the elastic tunneling
theory of Tersoff and Hamann. The inelastic current is proportional to the
change in the local density of states at the center of the tip due to the
addition of the adsorbate. We use the theory to investigate the vibrational
heating of an adsorbate below an STM tip. We calculate the desorption rate of H
from Si(100)-H(21) as function of the sample bias and tunnel current,
and find excellent agreement with recent experimental data.Comment: 5 pages, RevTeX, epsf file
Spontaneous magnetization of aluminum nanowires deposited on the NaCl(100) surface
We investigate electronic structures of Al quantum wires, both unsupported
and supported on the (100) NaCl surface, using the density-functional theory.
We confirm that unsupported nanowires, constrained to be linear, show
magnetization when elongated beyond the equilibrium length. Allowing ions to
relax, the wires deform to zig-zag structures with lower magnetization but no
dimerization occurs. When an Al wire is deposited on the NaCl surface, a
zig-zag geometry emerges again. The magnetization changes moderately from that
for the corresponding unsupported wire. We analyse the findings using electron
band structures and simple model wires.Comment: submitted to PHys. Rev.
Interaction between Kondo impurities in a quantum corral
We calculate the spectral densities for two impurities inside an elliptical
quantum corral using exact diagonalization in the relevant Hilbert subspace and
embedding into the rest of the system. For one impurity, the space and energy
dependence of the change in differential conductance observed
in the quantum mirage experiment is reproduced. In presence of another
impurity, is very sensitive to the hybridization between
impurity and bulk. The impurities are correlated ferromagnetically between
them. A hopping eV between impurities destroy the Kondo
resonance.Comment: 4 pages, 4 figure
Flat-Band Ferromagnetism in Organic Polymers Designed by a Computer Simulation
By coupling a first-principles, spin-density functional calculation with an
exact diagonalization study of the Hubbard model, we have searched over various
functional groups for the best case for the flat-band ferromagnetism proposed
by R. Arita et al. [Phys. Rev. Lett. {\bf 88}, 127202 (2002)] in organic
polymers of five-membered rings. The original proposal (poly-aminotriazole) has
turned out to be the best case among the materials examined, where the reason
why this is so is identified here. We have also found that the ferromagnetism,
originally proposed for the half-filled flat band, is stable even when the band
filling is varied away from the half-filling. All these make the ferromagnetism
proposed here more experimentally inviting.Comment: 11 pages, 13figure
Auxiliary-level-assisted operations with charge qubits in semiconductors
We present a new scheme for rotations of a charge qubit associated with a
singly ionized pair of donor atoms in a semiconductor host. The logical states
of such a qubit proposed recently by Hollenberg et al. are defined by the
lowest two energy states of the remaining valence electron localized around one
or another donor. We show that an electron located initially at one donor site
can be transferred to another donor site via an auxiliary molecular level
formed upon the hybridization of the excited states of two donors. The electron
transfer is driven by a single resonant microwave pulse in the case that the
energies of the lowest donor states coincide or two resonant pulses in the case
that they differ from each other. Depending on the pulse parameters, various
one-qubit operations, including the phase gate, the NOT gate, and the Hadamard
gate, can be realized in short times. Decoherence of an electron due to the
interaction with acoustic phonons is analyzed and shown to be weak enough for
coherent qubit manipulation being possible, at least in the proof-of-principle
experiments on one-qubit devices.Comment: Extended version of cond-mat/0411605 with detailed discussion of
phonon-induced decoherence including dephasing and relaxation; to be
published in JET
Spatially-resolved electronic and vibronic properties of single diamondoid molecules
Diamondoids are a unique form of carbon nanostructure best described as
hydrogen-terminated diamond molecules. Their diamond-cage structures and
tetrahedral sp3 hybrid bonding create new possibilities for tuning electronic
band gaps, optical properties, thermal transport, and mechanical strength at
the nanoscale. The recently-discovered higher diamondoids (each containing more
than three diamond cells) have thus generated much excitement in regards to
their potential versatility as nanoscale devices. Despite this excitement,
however, very little is known about the properties of isolated diamondoids on
metal surfaces, a very relevant system for molecular electronics. Here we
report the first molecular scale study of individual tetramantane diamondoids
on Au(111) using scanning tunneling microscopy and spectroscopy. We find that
both the diamondoid electronic structure and electron-vibrational coupling
exhibit unique spatial distributions characterized by pronounced line nodes
across the molecular surfaces. Ab-initio pseudopotential density functional
calculations reveal that the observed dominant electronic and vibronic
properties of diamondoids are determined by surface hydrogen terminations, a
feature having important implications for designing diamondoid-based molecular
devices.Comment: 16 pages, 4 figures. to appear in Nature Material
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