A quantum pathway to overcome the trilemma of magnetic data storage

Abstract

The three essential pillars of magnetic data storage devices are readability, writeability, and stability. However, these requirements compete as magnetic domain sizes reach the fundamental limit of single atoms and molecules. The proven magnetic bistability of individual holmium atoms on magnesium oxide appeared to operate within this magnetic trilemma, sacrificing writeability for unprecedented stability. Using the magnetic stray field created by the tip of a spin-polarized scanning tunneling microscope (SP-STM), we controllably move the Ho state into the quantum regime, allowing us to write its state via the quantum tunneling of magnetization (QTM). We find that the hyperfine interaction causes both the excellent magnetic bistability, even at zero applied magnetic field, and the avoided level crossings which we use to control the magnetic state via QTM. We explore how to use such a system to realize a high-fidelity single atom NOT gate (inverter). Our approach reveals the prospect of combining the best traits of the classical and quantum worlds for next generation data storage.

References in corpus (13)

• Quantum Computing in Molecular Magnets
• Nuclear Spin Driven Quantum Tunneling of Magnetization in a New Lanthanide Single-Molecule Magnet: Bis(phthalocyaninato)holmium anion
• Reading and Writing Single-Atom Magnets
• Operating Quantum States in Single Magnetic Molecules: Implementation of Grover's Quantum Algorithm
• Nuclear spin driven quantum relaxation in LiY_0.998Ho_0.002F_4
• Engineering the eigenstates of coupled spin-1/2 atoms on a surface
• Atomic-scale spin sensing with a single-molecule at the apex of a scanning tunneling microscope
• Thermal and magnetic field stability of holmium single atom magnets
• Observation of Cooperative Electronic Quantum Tunneling: Increasing Accessible Nuclear States in a Molecular Qudit
• Upgrade of a low-temperature scanning tunneling microscope for electron-spin resonance
• Adsorption Sites of Individual Metal Atoms on Ultrathin MgO(100) Films
• Landau-Zener transition in a continuously measured single-molecule spin transistor
• Antiferromagnetic MnNi tips for spin-polarized scanning probe microscopy

Cited by in corpus (8)

• Tuning Single-Atom Electron Spin Resonance in a Vector-Magnetic Field
• Trends in the hyperfine interactions of magnetic adatoms on thin insulating layers
• Orbital-resolved single atom magnetism measured with X-ray absorption spectroscopy
• Acoustic analog to multiple avoided-crossings in two coupled acoustic cavities
• Single Atom Magnets on Thermally Stable Adsorption Sites: Dy on NaCl(100)
• Interplay of magnetic states and hyperfine fields of iron dimers on MgO(001)
• 3d-oxide molecules to tailor large magnetic anisotropy energies on MgO films
• Theory of Electron Spin Resonance Scanning Tunneling Microscopy: The First Decade