PRESS-NEWS.org - Press Release Distribution
PRESS RELEASES DISTRIBUTION

Robust isolated quantum spins established on a magnetic substrate

Researchers successfully realized a stable, isolated quantum spin on an insulating thin film laid over a magnetic surface

2025-08-20
(Press-News.org) Establishing robust isolated spins on solid surfaces is crucial for fabricating quantum bits or qubits, sensors, and single-atom catalysts. An isolated spin is a single spin that is shielded from external interactions. Because isolated spins can maintain their state for long periods, they are ideal for use as qubits, the basic units of quantum computation, and for ultrafast spintronic memory. 

Consequently, significant research has been dedicated to identifying materials capable of producing a stable isolated quantum spin. Candidates include single atoms of transition metals such as copper (Cu) in the Cu-phthalocyanine molecule (CuPc), molecular magnets, nitrogen-vacancy centres in diamonds, and two-dimensional layered materials. One way to detect an isolated spin is by observing a zero-bias peak (ZBP) in the electrical conductance of, for example, a noble metal substrate containing a CuPc molecule. The ZBP results from the interaction between conduction electrons on the substrate and the isolated spin. 

So far, the engineering of these ZBPs has been mainly limited to noble metal surfaces, like gold and silver. These surfaces are rich in conduction electrons, which, while useful for ZBP, can also scatter a spin and flip its state, causing it to disturb the intrinsic spin state. This makes them unsuitable for use as qubits. As a solution, researchers have turned to insulating films, which lack conduction electrons and can host more stable spins.

In a breakthrough, a research team led by Associate Professor Toyo Kazu Yamada from the Graduate School of Engineering at Chiba University, Japan, demonstrated for the first time isolated spins on an insulating solid surface laid over a magnetic substrate. “In this study, we successfully realized isolated spins on an insulating magnesium oxide (MgO) surface placed on a ferromagnetic iron substrate–Fe(001),” explains Dr. Yamada. “Since insulating surfaces do not have conduction electrons, quantum spins can remain more stable. Moreover, the MgO/Fe(001) structure that we used is already widely used in spintronics, making our approach highly accessible.” The team also included Mr. Kyoei Ishi, Dr. Nana Nazriq, and Dr. Peter Krüger, also from Chiba University. Their study was published online in the journal Nanoscale Horizons on July 30, 2025.

The researchers, in the study, focused on placing a CuPc molecule on a MgO/Fe(001) interface. The first hurdle they faced was to grow an atomically flat MgO layer on an Fe(001) substrate. They found that developing an oxygen coating on Fe(001) can provide an atomically flat surface. This enabled them to epitaxially grow a flat MgO film on the oxygen-coated Fe(001) substrate using chemical vapor deposition in an ultra-high vacuum. Finally, after trial and error, they successfully adsorbed a CuPc molecule onto the insulating MgO surface. 

“A unique feature of our design is the use of a ferromagnetic iron substrate,” says Dr. Yamada. “While a magnetic surface would normally interact with and change the state of an isolated spin, the insulating layer between the substrate and the CuPc molecule prevents direct interaction, keeping the spin stable.”

To confirm the presence of isolated spins, they conducted scanning tunnelling spectroscopy of the fabricated sample and looked for a ZBP. Since MgO lacks conduction electrons, they did not initially expect a ZBP to appear. However, upon close examination, they clearly observed a clear ZBP that emerged via indirect coupling of the isolated spin and conduction electrons in the Fe(001) substrate through the MgO surface. This suggests that insulating films can support the formation of isolated spins, even on ferromagnetic substances. Interestingly, the ZBP also appeared on the MgO surface outside the CuPc, which is not found in noble metal surfaces.

“Our study marks a remarkable achievement for research on isolated spins,” remarks Dr. Yamada. “Because the MgO/Fe(001) surface is already widely used in tunnel magnetoresistance devices, our findings suggest it may be possible to integrate qubits using existing thin-film fabrication methods.”

This groundbreaking study opens a new direction for isolated spin research, posing magnetic substrates, already widely used in spintronic devices, as a new platform for holding and manipulating qubits, paving the way for more accessible quantum computing.

To see more news from Chiba University, click here.


About Associate Professor Toyo Kazu Yamada 
Dr. Toyo Kazu Yamada currently holds the position of Associate Professor in the Department of Materials Science at Chiba University, Japan. He earned his Ph.D. (double degree) in 2004 from Radboud University Nijmegen, The Netherlands; and Gakushuin University, Japan. Additionally, he served as a Humboldt research fellow at the Karlsruhe Institute of Technology from 2008 to 2010. His research interests include spintronics, thin film and nanotechnology, surface science, and quantum spins, among others.
 

END


ELSE PRESS RELEASES FROM THIS DATE:

Omega-3’s could protect women against Alzheimer’s

2025-08-20
Omega fatty acids could protect against Alzheimer’s disease in women, new research has found. Analysis of lipids – fat molecules that perform many essential functions in the body – in the blood found there was a noticeable loss of unsaturated fats, such as those that contain omega fatty acids, in the blood of women with Alzheimer’s disease compared to healthy women. Scientists found no significant difference in the same lipid molecule composition in men with Alzheimer’s disease compared to healthy men, ...

Building a better database to detect designer drugs

2025-08-20
WASHINGTON, Aug. 20, 2025 — How do you identify something no one has a test for? Designer drugs replicate the effects of known, illicit drugs but evade law enforcement. The chemical structure variations that help these compounds avoid detection also make them unpredictable in the body — a quality that poses serious health consequences. Now, a research team has used computer modeling to create a database of predicted chemical structures for improved detection of designer drugs. Jason Liang, a rising senior in the Science, Mathematics and Computer Science Magnet Program at Montgomery Blair High School, will present the team’s ...

Breast tumors tunnel into fat cells to fuel up. Can we stop them?

2025-08-20
UCSF scientists caught cancer cells in the act of breaking into fat cells and releasing their fat. The energy heist seems to be critical for the growth of deadly breast cancer.  When triple-negative breast cancer grows, the fat cells around it seem to shrink.   UCSF researchers have discovered that the cells of these tumors, which are among the deadliest types of breast cancer, build molecular tunnels, called gap junctions, into nearby fat cells. The tumor cells then send instructions that trigger the fat cells to release stores of energy that could feed the cancer.   Blocking the ...

Study finds heart health declining in older adults with certain cardiovascular diseases

2025-08-20
Research Highlights: Based on the American Heart Association’s Life’s Essential 8 health metrics, cardiovascular health among older U.S. adults with certain cardiovascular diseases was suboptimal and declining. Using 2013-2018 national health survey data for 3,050 adults ages 65 and older (with and without cardiovascular disease), researchers found that cardiovascular health dropped significantly among those with high blood pressure, stroke or heart failure. The cardiovascular health gap between people with and without cardiovascular disease appears to be largely explained by differences ...

Earth System Models project the start of the Amazon dieback within the 21st century

2025-08-20
The Amazon is the world's largest rainforest. It harbors immense biodiversity and plays a crucial role in the global climate system by storing vast amounts of carbon in its vegetation (Figure 1). The Amazon is widely recognized as a major climate tipping element note 1(IPCC: Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change). Continued deforestation and climate change could push the system past a critical threshold, causing the Amazon to shift from rainforest rich in biodiversity to a degraded savannah-like ecosystem. ...

New graphene technology matures brain organoids faster, may unlock neurodegenerative insights

2025-08-20
Researchers from University of California San Diego Sanford Stem Cell Institute have developed a novel method to stimulate and mature human brain organoids using graphene, a one-atom-thick sheet of carbon. Published in Nature Communications, the study introduces Graphene-Mediated Optical Stimulation (GraMOS), a safe, non-genetic, biocompatible, non-damaging way to influence neural activity over days to weeks. The approach accelerates brain organoid development — especially important for modeling age-related conditions like Alzheimer’s disease — and even allows them to control robotic devices in real time. “This is a game-changer for brain ...

High-frequency molecular vibrations initiate electron movement

2025-08-20
Whether in solar cells or in the human eye: whenever certain molecules absorb light, the electrons within them shift from their ground state into a higher energy, excited state. This results in the transport of energy and charge, leading to charge separation and eventually to the generation of electricity. An international team of scientists led by Dr Antonietta De Sio and Prof. Dr. Christoph Lienau from the Ultrafast Nano-Optics research group at the University of Oldenburg, Germany, has now observed the earliest steps of this process in a complex dye molecule. As ...

Fat cells under false command

2025-08-20
Too much fat can be unhealthy: how fat cells, so-called adipocytes, develop, is crucial for the function of the fat tissue. That is why a team led by researchers from the University Hospital Bonn (UKB) and the University of Bonn investigated the influence of primary cilia dysfunction on adipocyte precursor cells in a mouse model. They found that overactivation of the Hedgehog signaling pathway causes abnormal development into connective tissue-like cells instead of white fat cells. Their findings have now been published in The EMBO Journal. White adipose tissue stores energy and regulates important metabolic processes ...

How mutations in bodily tissues affect ageing

2025-08-20
Two new studies from Karolinska Institutet in Sweden have investigated how mutations that occur in muscles and blood vessels over time can affect ageing. The studies, which are published in Nature Aging, show that such mutations can reduce muscle strength and accelerate blood vessel ageing. The results can be of significance to the treatment of age-related diseases. Somatic mutations are non-hereditary genetic changes in cells and occur during a lifetime as a result of environmental factors or through random errors when a cell copies its DNA before dividing. The mutations can give rise to cancer, but otherwise their effect has been disputed. “We’ve discovered that mutations ...

Industry managed forests more likely to fuel megafires

2025-08-20
The odds of high-severity wildfire were nearly one-and-a-half times higher on industrial private land than on publicly owned forests, a new study found. Forests managed by timber companies were more likely to exhibit the conditions that megafires love—dense stands of regularly spaced trees with continuous vegetation connecting the understory to the canopy. The research, led by the University of Utah, University of California, Berkeley, and the United States Forest Service, is the first to identify how extreme weather conditions and forest management practices jointly impact fire severity.Leveraging ...

LAST 30 PRESS RELEASES:

Trailblazing Young Scientists honored with $250,000 prizes at Blavatnik National Awards Gala

Revolutionary blood test for ME / Chronic Fatigue unveiled

Calorie labelling linked to 2% average reduction in energy content of menu items

Widely prescribed opioid painkiller tramadol not that effective for easing chronic pain

Exercise snacks may boost cardiorespiratory fitness of physically inactive adults

15,000 women a year with breast cancer could benefit from whole genome sequencing, say researchers

Study highlights risks of Caesarean births to future pregnancies

GLP-1 agonists pose emerging challenge for PET-CT imaging, study finds

Scripps Research scientists unlock new patterns of protein behavior in cell membranes

Panama Canal may face frequent extreme water lows in coming decades

Flash Joule heating lights up lithium extraction from ores

COMBINEDBrain and MUSC announce partnership to establish biorepository for pediatric cerebrospinal fluid and CNS tissue bank

Questionable lead reporting for drinking water virtually vanished after Flint water crisis, study reveals

Assessing overconfidence among national security officials

Bridging two frontiers: Mitochondria & microbiota, Targeting Extracellular Vesicles 2025 to explore game-changing pathways in medicine

New imaging tech promises to help doctors better diagnose and treat skin cancers

Once dominant, US agricultural exports falter amid trade disputes and rising competition

Biochar from invasive weed shields rice from toxic nanoplastics and heavy metals

Rice University announces second cohort of Chevron Energy Graduate Fellows

Soil bacteria and minerals form a natural “battery” that breaks down antibiotics in the dark

Jamestown colonists brought donkeys, not just horses, to North America, old bones reveal

FIU cybersecurity researchers develop midflight defense against drone hijacking

Kennesaw State researcher aims to discover how ideas spread in the digital age

Next-generation perovskite solar cells are closer to commercial use

Sleep patterns linked to variation in health, cognition, lifestyle, and brain organization

University of Oklahoma researcher awarded funding to bridge gap between molecular data and tissue architecture

Nationally-recognized pathologist Paul N. Staats, MD, named Chair of Pathology at University of Maryland School of Medicine

The world’s snow leopards are very similar genetically. That doesn’t bode well for their future

Researchers find key to stopping deadly infection

Leafcutter ants have blind spots, just like truck drivers

[Press-News.org] Robust isolated quantum spins established on a magnetic substrate
Researchers successfully realized a stable, isolated quantum spin on an insulating thin film laid over a magnetic surface