Self-regulated Gd atom trapping in open Fe nanocorrals

(Received 11 February 2014; revised manuscript received 4 July 2014; published 31 July 2014)Utilizing open Fe nanocorrals built by atom manipulation, we demonstrate self-regulated Gd atom trappingin open quantum corrals. The number of Gd atoms trapped is exactly determined by the diameter of the corral.The quantization can be understood as a self-regulating process, arising from the long-range interaction betweenGd atoms and the open corral. We illustrate with arrays of open corrals that such atom trapping can suppressunwantedstatisticalfluctuations.Ourapproachopensapotentialpathwayfornanomaterialdesignandfabricationwith atomic-level precision.DOI: 10.1103/PhysRevB.90.045433 PACS number(s): 81