Related Experiment Video
Updated: Jun 29, 2026

Fabrication of Gate-tunable Graphene Devices for Scanning Tunneling Microscopy Studies with Coulomb Impurities
Published on: July 24, 2015
Magnetism at single isolated iron atoms implanted in graphite
R Sielemann1, Y Kobayashi, Y Yoshida
1Hahn-Meitner-Institut Berlin GmbH, 14109 Berlin, Germany.
Abstract:
Mössbauer spectra obtained after implantation of 57Fe into highly oriented pyrolytic graphite (HOPG) show a combined magnetic and quadrupole interaction with a magnetic hyperfine field Bhf = 32.6 T at 14 K. Though magnetic effects in nominally diamagnetic HOPG have been reported recently, no experiment has previously shown the existence of magnetism at the atomic scale. The results suggest that magnetic ordering occurs by coupling of the Fe magnetic moment to structural and/or electronic magnetic defects induced by the probe atoms' implantation damage.
Related Concept Videos
Ferromagnetism
Magnetic Moment of an Electron
Potential Due to a Magnetized Object
The vector...
Diamagnetism
Diamagnetism was discovered by Anton Brugmans in 1778 when he observed that bismuth gets repelled by magnetic fields, thus theorizing that diamagnets get repelled by magnets.
Paramagnetism
Colors and Magnetism
When atoms or molecules absorb light at the proper frequency, their electrons are excited to higher-energy orbitals. For many main group atoms and molecules, the absorbed photons are in the ultraviolet range of the electromagnetic spectrum, which cannot be detected by the human eye. For coordination compounds, the energy difference between the d orbitals often allows photons in the visible range to be absorbed and emitted, which is seen as colors by the human eye.
