Biomedical subjects
Publications and source records attributed to A J Heinrich.
We demonstrate the ability to measure the energy required to flip the spin of single adsorbed atoms. A low-temperature, high-magnetic field scanning tunneling microscope was used to measure the spin excitation spectra of individual manganese atoms adsorbed on Al2O3 islands on a NiAl surface. We find pronounced variations of the spin-flip spectra for manganese atoms in different local environments.
We discuss two examples of novel information-transport and processing mechanisms in nanometre-scale structures. The local modulation and detection of a quantum state can be used for information transport at the nanometre length-scale, an effect we call a 'quantum mirage'. We demonstrate that, unlike conventional electronic information transport using wires, the quantum mirage can be used to pass multiple channels of information through the same volume of a solid. We discuss a new class of nanometre-scale structures called 'molecule cascades', and show how they may be used to implement a general-purpose binary-logic computer in which all of the circuitry is at the nanometre length-scale.
Carbon monoxide molecules were arranged in atomically precise configurations, which we call "molecule cascades," where the motion of one molecule causes the subsequent motion of another, and so on in a cascade of motion similar to a row of toppling dominoes. Isotopically pure cascades were assembled on a copper (111) surface with a low-temperature scanning tunneling microscope. The hopping rate of carbon monoxide molecules in cascades was found to be independent of temperature below 6 kelvin and to exhibit a pronounced isotope effect, hallmarks of a quantum tunneling process. At higher temperatures, we observed a thermally activated hopping rate with an anomalously low Arrhenius prefactor that we interpret as tunneling from excited vibrational states. We present a cascade-based computation scheme that has all of the devices and interconnects required for the one-time computation of an arbitrary logic function. Logic gates and other devices were implemented by engineered arrangements of molecules at the intersections of cascades. We demonstrate a three-input sorter that uses several AND gates and OR gates, as well as the crossover and fan-out units needed to connect them.