Antiferromagnetic MnNi tips for spin-polarized scanning probe microscopy.
Patrick R ForresterT BilgeriF PattheyHarald BruneFabian Donat NattererPublished in: The Review of scientific instruments (2019)
Spin-polarized scanning tunneling microscopy (SP-STM) measures magnetoresistance with atomic resolution. While various methods for achieving SP probes have been developed, each is limited with respect to fabrication, performance, and operating conditions. In this study, we present the fabrication and use of SP-STM tips made from commercially available antiferromagnetic Mn88Ni12 foils. The tips are intrinsically SP, which is attractive for exploring magnetic phenomena in the zero field limit. The tip material is relatively ductile, is straightforward to etch, and has a Néel temperature exceeding 300 K. We benchmark the topographic and spectroscopic performance of our tips and demonstrate their spin sensitivity by measuring the two-state switching of holmium single atom magnets on MgO/Ag(100).
Keyphrases
- single molecule
- high resolution
- living cells
- room temperature
- transition metal
- density functional theory
- electron microscopy
- quantum dots
- high throughput
- high speed
- molecular dynamics
- molecular docking
- small molecule
- optical coherence tomography
- low cost
- molecularly imprinted
- tissue engineering
- label free
- simultaneous determination
- single cell
- tandem mass spectrometry