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Updated: Jun 23, 2026

Fabrication of Spatially Confined Complex Oxides
Published on: July 1, 2013
Building Complex Kondo Impurities by Manipulating Entangled Spin Chains
Deung-Jang Choi1,2, Roberto Robles3, Shichao Yan1,2
1Max Planck Institute for the Structure and Dynamics of Matter , Luruper Chaussee 149, 22761 Hamburg, Germany.
Abstract:
The creation of molecule-like structures in which magnetic atoms interact controllably is full of potential for the study of complex or strongly correlated systems. Here, we create spin chains in which a strongly correlated Kondo state emerges from magnetic coupling of transition-metal atoms. We build chains up to ten atoms in length by placing Fe and Mn atoms on a Cu2N surface with a scanning tunneling microscope. The atoms couple antiferromagnetically via superexchange interaction through the nitrogen atom network of the surface. The emergent Kondo resonance is spatially distributed along the chain. Its strength can be controlled by mixing atoms of different transition metal elements and manipulating their spatial distribution. We show that the Kondo screening of the full chain by the electrons of the nonmagnetic substrate depends on the interatomic entanglement of the spins in the chain, demonstrating the prerequisites to build and probe spatially extended strongly correlated nanostructures.
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