Spin structures in transition metal oxide or chalgogenide chains

• Applicants: Professor Dr. Matthias Bode; Professor Dr. M. Alexander Schneider
• Subject Area: Experimental Condensed Matter Physics ; Theoretical Condensed Matter Physics
• Term: since 2022
• Project identifier: Deutsche Forschungsgemeinschaft (DFG) - Project number 516080144

The aim of this project is to fabricate novel one-dimensional (1D) magnetic structures, to elucidate their spin structure and atomic structure and to identify the underlying interaction mechanisms. As a promising class of materials for the 1D structures, we focus on transition metal oxides and transition metal chalcogenides on metal substrates. This allows us to investigate not only the influence of the nature of the transition metal ion and its charge or spin state, but also the influence of the chemistry of the immediate neighboring atoms that mediate the coupling. We achieve this by a unique combination of experimental methods that can elucidate the structural properties of the surface on the one hand and the local magnetic order in real space on the other. This will allow us to investigate the dependence of magnetic ordering phenomena on the stoichiometry of the 1D transition metal oxides and the newly prepared transition metal chalcogenides with unprecedented precision. In particular, we are interested in the conditions under which collinear or non-collinear spin structures are formed along the chains but also perpendicular to them. Relevant parameters, which are systematically varied in a selection in this project, are the nature of the TM ion, its oxidation number, the variation of the substrate, the variation of the binding partners from the elements of group 16 and the change of the substrate coupling by additional adsorbates between the chain structures.

• DFG Programme: Research Grants