Emerging magnetic order in platinum atomic contacts and chains.
basic_science · Level V
Where this comes from
- Record sourced from PubMed, PMID 25649440.
- Also identified by DOI 10.1038/ncomms7172 and PMC identifier 4347049.
- Licence recorded as CC BY.
- The licence permits redistribution, so the abstract is shown in full and the full text is available from the publisher.
Abstract
The development of atomic-scale structures revealing novel transport phenomena is a major goal of nanotechnology. Examples include chains of atoms that form while stretching a transition metal contact or the predicted formation of magnetic order in these chains, the existence of which is still debated. Here we report an experimental study of the magneto-conductance (MC) and anisotropic MC with atomic-size contacts and mono-atomic chains of the nonmagnetic metal platinum. We find a pronounced and diverse MC behaviour, the amplitude and functional dependence change when stretching the contact by subatomic distances. These findings can be interpreted as a signature of local magnetic order in the chain, which may be of particular importance for the application of atomic-sized contacts in spintronic devices of the smallest possible size.