Controlling the magnetic properties of individual iron atoms
Friday, January 29, 2016 - 10:54
in Physics & Chemistry
The Fe2+ atom embedded in a semiconductor exhibits a single non-degenerate ground state of zero magnetic moment. A team of scientists from the University of Warsaw has just shown that by using a sufficiently large strain, it is possible to tailor the energy spectrum of the iron atom to obtain a doubly degenerate (magnetic) ground state. Such a state can be utilized for storage and processing of quantum information. This discovery has been just published in prestigious research journal of Nature Communications.