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Translational Manipulation of Magnetic Cobalt Adatoms on the Si(100)‑2 × 1 Surface at 9 K
journal contribution
posted on 2019-10-17, 21:44 authored by Mayssa Yengui, Eric Duverger, Philippe Sonnet, Damien RiedelThe
controlled motion of magnetic impurities on semiconductor (SC)
surfaces is of crucial importance for atomic scale magnetic devices.
Still challenging because of their strong reactivity with SCs, magnetic
impurities are usually studied in bulk SCs, thus preventing their
manipulation. Here, we show that a single Co adatom can be steadied
on the bare Si(100)-2 × 1 surface in a pedestal configuration
at low temperature, 9 K, and moved along the reconstructed silicon
dimer rows via the use of a scanning tunneling microscope. The electronic
characteristics of the Co adatom and its surroundings are investigated
via topography and dI/dV measurements.
Our findings reveal that the Si–Co bonding involves hybridization
between the Si-p and the Co-pxpy orbitals. This configuration indicates that the
Co-d orbitals remain weakly hybridized with the silicon atoms. These
results are supported by density functional theory calculations where
the role of the As dopant is discussed as well as the surface reconstruction.
Therefore, we show that the motion direction of the Co adatom can
be influenced by the surrounding c(4 × 2) or p(2 × 2) surface
reconstruction phases, thus opening future interesting magnetic applications.