Due to underlying symmetries, the ground states of magnetic adatoms may be highly stable, which opens perspectives for application as single-atom memory. A specific example is a single holmium atom (with $J=8$) on a platinum (111) surface for which exceptionally long lifetimes were observed in recent scanning tunneling microscopy studies. For control and read-out, the atom must be coupled to electronic contacts. Hence the spin dynamics of the system is governed by a quantum master equation. Our analysis shows that, in general, it cannot be reduced to a classical master equation in the basis of the unperturbed crystal-field Hamiltonian. Rather, depending on parameters and control fields, “environment-induced superselection” principles choose the appropriate set of basis states, which in turn determines the specific relaxation channels and lifetimes. Our simulations suggest that in ideal situations the lifetimes should be even longer than observed in the experiment. We, therefore, investigate the influence of various perturbations. We also study the initialization process of the state of the Ho atom by applied voltage pulses and conclude that fast, high fidelity preparation, on a $100\text{-ns}$ time scale, should be possible.

• Received 13 February 2015
• Revised 8 May 2015

DOI:https://doi.org/10.1103/PhysRevB.91.245430