报告摘要:Understanding and controlling the magnetic properties of nanoscale systems is crucial for the implementation of future data storage and computation paradigms. I will discuss how the magnetic properties of individual atoms can be probed with a low-temperature, high-field scanning tunneling microscope when the atoms are placed on a thin insulator. We find clear evidence of magnetic anisotropy in the spin excitation spectra of individual magnetic atoms embedded in a non-magnetic surface. In extended one-dimensional spin chains, which we built one atom at a time, we find strong spin-coupling into collective quantum-spins, even for the longest chains of length 3.5nm. When magnetic atoms are transferred to an otherwise non-magnetic tip, spin-polarized tunneling currents can be obtained and these can be used to efficiently pump spin systems out of thermal equilibrium.