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Quantum spins and hybridization in artificially-constructed chains of magnetic adatoms on a superconductor

Magnetic adatom chains on surfaces constitute fascinating quantum spin systems. Superconducting substrates suppress interactions with bulk electronic excitations but couple the adatom spins to a chain of subgap Yu-Shiba-Rusinov (YSR) quasiparticles. Using a scanning tunneling microscope, we investig...

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Autores principales: Liebhaber, Eva, Rütten, Lisa M., Reecht, Gaël, Steiner, Jacob F., Rohlf, Sebastian, Rossnagel, Kai, von Oppen, Felix, Franke, Katharina J.
Formato: Online Artículo Texto
Lenguaje:English
Publicado: Nature Publishing Group UK 2022
Materias:
Acceso en línea:https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pmc/articles/PMC9021194/
https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pubmed/35443753
http://dx.doi.org/10.1038/s41467-022-29879-0
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author Liebhaber, Eva
Rütten, Lisa M.
Reecht, Gaël
Steiner, Jacob F.
Rohlf, Sebastian
Rossnagel, Kai
von Oppen, Felix
Franke, Katharina J.
author_facet Liebhaber, Eva
Rütten, Lisa M.
Reecht, Gaël
Steiner, Jacob F.
Rohlf, Sebastian
Rossnagel, Kai
von Oppen, Felix
Franke, Katharina J.
author_sort Liebhaber, Eva
collection PubMed
description Magnetic adatom chains on surfaces constitute fascinating quantum spin systems. Superconducting substrates suppress interactions with bulk electronic excitations but couple the adatom spins to a chain of subgap Yu-Shiba-Rusinov (YSR) quasiparticles. Using a scanning tunneling microscope, we investigate such correlated spin-fermion systems by constructing Fe chains adatom by adatom on superconducting NbSe(2). The adatoms couple entirely via the substrate, retaining their quantum spin nature. In dimers, we observe that the deepest YSR state undergoes a quantum phase transition due to Ruderman-Kittel-Kasuya-Yosida interactions, a distinct signature of quantum spins. Chains exhibit coherent hybridization and band formation of the YSR excitations, indicating ferromagnetic coupling. Longer chains develop separate domains due to coexisting charge-density-wave order of NbSe(2). Despite the spin-orbit-coupled substrate, we find no signatures of Majoranas, possibly because quantum spins reduce the parameter range for topological superconductivity. We suggest that adatom chains are versatile systems for investigating correlated-electron physics and its interplay with topological superconductivity.
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spelling pubmed-90211942022-04-28 Quantum spins and hybridization in artificially-constructed chains of magnetic adatoms on a superconductor Liebhaber, Eva Rütten, Lisa M. Reecht, Gaël Steiner, Jacob F. Rohlf, Sebastian Rossnagel, Kai von Oppen, Felix Franke, Katharina J. Nat Commun Article Magnetic adatom chains on surfaces constitute fascinating quantum spin systems. Superconducting substrates suppress interactions with bulk electronic excitations but couple the adatom spins to a chain of subgap Yu-Shiba-Rusinov (YSR) quasiparticles. Using a scanning tunneling microscope, we investigate such correlated spin-fermion systems by constructing Fe chains adatom by adatom on superconducting NbSe(2). The adatoms couple entirely via the substrate, retaining their quantum spin nature. In dimers, we observe that the deepest YSR state undergoes a quantum phase transition due to Ruderman-Kittel-Kasuya-Yosida interactions, a distinct signature of quantum spins. Chains exhibit coherent hybridization and band formation of the YSR excitations, indicating ferromagnetic coupling. Longer chains develop separate domains due to coexisting charge-density-wave order of NbSe(2). Despite the spin-orbit-coupled substrate, we find no signatures of Majoranas, possibly because quantum spins reduce the parameter range for topological superconductivity. We suggest that adatom chains are versatile systems for investigating correlated-electron physics and its interplay with topological superconductivity. Nature Publishing Group UK 2022-04-20 /pmc/articles/PMC9021194/ /pubmed/35443753 http://dx.doi.org/10.1038/s41467-022-29879-0 Text en © The Author(s) 2022 https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/4.0/Open Access This article is licensed under a Creative Commons Attribution 4.0 International License, which permits use, sharing, adaptation, distribution and reproduction in any medium or format, as long as you give appropriate credit to the original author(s) and the source, provide a link to the Creative Commons license, and indicate if changes were made. The images or other third party material in this article are included in the article’s Creative Commons license, unless indicated otherwise in a credit line to the material. If material is not included in the article’s Creative Commons license and your intended use is not permitted by statutory regulation or exceeds the permitted use, you will need to obtain permission directly from the copyright holder. To view a copy of this license, visit http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/4.0/ (https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/4.0/) .
spellingShingle Article
Liebhaber, Eva
Rütten, Lisa M.
Reecht, Gaël
Steiner, Jacob F.
Rohlf, Sebastian
Rossnagel, Kai
von Oppen, Felix
Franke, Katharina J.
Quantum spins and hybridization in artificially-constructed chains of magnetic adatoms on a superconductor
title Quantum spins and hybridization in artificially-constructed chains of magnetic adatoms on a superconductor
title_full Quantum spins and hybridization in artificially-constructed chains of magnetic adatoms on a superconductor
title_fullStr Quantum spins and hybridization in artificially-constructed chains of magnetic adatoms on a superconductor
title_full_unstemmed Quantum spins and hybridization in artificially-constructed chains of magnetic adatoms on a superconductor
title_short Quantum spins and hybridization in artificially-constructed chains of magnetic adatoms on a superconductor
title_sort quantum spins and hybridization in artificially-constructed chains of magnetic adatoms on a superconductor
topic Article
url https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pmc/articles/PMC9021194/
https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pubmed/35443753
http://dx.doi.org/10.1038/s41467-022-29879-0
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