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Science 31 January 1992:
Vol. 255. no. 5044, pp. 583 - 586
DOI: 10.1126/science.255.5044.583
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Articles

Topographic and Magnetic-Sensitive Scanning Tunneling Microscope Study of Magnetite

R. WIESENDANGER 1, I. V. SHVETS 1, D. BÜRGLER 1, G. TARRACH 1, H. J. GÜNTHERODT 1, J. M. D. COEY 2, and S. GRÄSER 3

1 University of Basel, Department of Physics, Klingelbergstrasse 82, CH-4056 Basel, Switzerland
2 Trinity College, Department of Pure and Applied Physics, Dublin 2, Ireland
3 University of Basel, Department of Mineralogy, Bernoullistrasse 32, CH-4056 Basel, Switzerland

The topographic and magnetic surface structure of a natural single crystal of magnetite (Fe304), a common mineral, has been studied from the submicrometer scale down to the atomic scale with a scanning tunneling microscope having nonmagnetic tungsten as well as ferromagnetic iron probe tips. Several different (001) crystal planes were imaged to atomic resolution with both kinds of tips. A selective imaging of the octahedrally coordinated Fe B-sites in the Fe-O planes, and even a selective imaging of the different magnetic ions Fe2+ and Fe3+, has been achieved, demonstrating for the first time that magnetic imaging can be realized at the atomic level.

Submitted on September 23, 1991
Accepted on November 27, 1991


THIS ARTICLE HAS BEEN CITED BY OTHER ARTICLES:
Observation of Magnetic Hysteresis at the Nanometer Scale by Spin-Polarized Scanning Tunneling Spectroscopy.
O. Pietzsch, A. Kubetzka, M. Bode, and R. Wiesendanger (2001)
Science 292, 2053-2056
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Real-Space Imaging of Two-Dimensional Antiferromagnetism on the Atomic Scale.
S. Heinze, M. Bode, A. Kubetzka, O. Pietzsch, X. Nie, S. Blugel, and R. Wiesendanger (2000)
Science 288, 1805-1808
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