Single-ion lanthanide-organic complexes can provide stable magnetic moments with well-defined orientation for spintronic applications on the atomic level. Here, we show by a combined experimental approach of scanning tunneling microscopy and X-ray absorption spectroscopy that dysprosium-tris(1,1,1-trifluoro-4-(2-thienyl)-2,4butanedionate) (Dy(tta)3) complexes deposited on a Au(111) surface undergo a molecular distortion, resulting in distinct crystal field symmetry imposed on the Dy ion. This leads to an easy-axis magnetization direction in the ligand plane. Furthermore, we show that tunneling electrons hardly couple to the spin excitations, which we ascribe to the shielded nature of the 4f electrons.
@article{arxiv.1611.10190,
title = {Magnetic anisotropy in surface-supported single-ion lanthanide complexes},
author = {Paul Stoll and Matthias Bernien and Daniela Rolf and Fabian Nickel and Qingyu Xu and Claudia Hartmann and Tobias R. Umbach and Jens Kopprasch and Janina N. Ladenthin and Enrico Schierle and Eugen Weschke and Constantin Czekelius and Wolfgang Kuch and Katharina J. Franke},
journal= {arXiv preprint arXiv:1611.10190},
year = {2016}
}