Using low-temperature scanning tunneling microscopy, we demonstrate an unambiguous 1-D system that surprisingly undergoes a CDW instability on a metallic substrate. Our ability to directly and quantitatively measure the structural distortion of this system provides an accurate reference for comparison with first principles theory. In comparison to previously proposed physical mechanisms, we attribute this particular 1-D CDW instability to a ferromagnetic state. We show that though the linear arrayed dimers are not electronically isolated, they are magnetically independent, and hence can potentially serve as a binary spin-memory system.
@article{arxiv.1208.0612,
title = {Spin-exchange-induced dimerization of an atomic 1-D system},
author = {Nader Zaki and Chris A. Marianetti and Danda P. Acharya and Percy Zahl and Peter Sutter and Junichi Okamoto and Peter D. Johnson and Andrew J. Millis and Richard M. Osgood},
journal= {arXiv preprint arXiv:1208.0612},
year = {2013}
}