Self-Assembly of Magnetic Co Atoms on Stanene

Abstract

We have investigated the magnetic Co atoms self-assembled on the ultraflat stanene on Cu(111) substrate by utilizing scanning tunneling microscopy/spectroscopy (STM/STS) in conjunction with density functional theory (DFT). By means of depositing Co onto the stanene/Cu(111) held at 80 K, Co atoms have developed into the monomer, dimer, and trimer structures containing one, two, and three Co atoms respectively. As per atomically resolved topographic images and bias-dependent apparent heights, the atomic structure models based on Sn atoms substituted by Co atoms have been deduced, which are in agreement with both self-consistent DFT calculations and STM simulations. Apart from that, the projected density of states (PDOS) has revealed a minimum at around -0.5 eV from the Co-3d3z2-r2 minority band, which contributes predominately to the peak feature at about -0.3 eV in tunneling conductance (dI/dU) spectra taken at the Co atomic sites. As a result of the exchange splitting between the Co-3d majority and minority bands, there are non-zero magnetic moments, including about 0.60 uB in monomer, 0.56 uB in dimer, and 0.29 uB in trimer of the Co atom assembly on the stanene. Such magnetic Co atom assembly therefore could provide the vital building blocks in stabilizing the local magnetism on the two-dimensional (2D) stanene with non-trivial topological properties.