---
title: "Coexisting Spin, Vibrational, and Orbital Excitations in Conductance Spectra"
description: "First-principles predictions of excitation energies and cross sections in inelastic tunneling spectroscopy are challenging, making it difficult to assign experimental features to specific excitations. There is, however, a need for a reliable identification of conductance features. We investigated the spin- 1 / 2…"
datePublished: "2026-09-11"
lastmod: "2026-10-09T09:44:19+00:00"
authors:
  - "Arnab Banerjee"
  - "Roberto Robles"
  - "Nicolás Lorente"
  - "Richard Berndt"
  - "Alexander Weismann"
journal: "Physical Review Letters"
publisher: "American Physical Society (APS)"
doi: "10.1103/mwl6-8nzl"
publicationType: "journal-article"
schemaType: "ScholarlyArticle"
volume: "137"
issue: "11"
license: "https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/4.0/"
sponsor: "Ministerio de Ciencia e Innovación; Agencia Estatal de Investigación; Eusko Jaurlaritza; European Commission; Kiel Nano, Surface and Interface Science"
language: "en-GB"
slug: "10.1103-mwl6-8nzl"
---

# Coexisting Spin, Vibrational, and Orbital Excitations in Conductance Spectra

**Authors:** Arnab Banerjee, Roberto Robles, Nicolás Lorente, Richard Berndt, Alexander Weismann  
**Journal:** Physical Review Letters  
**Publisher:** American Physical Society (APS)  
**Published:** 2026-09-11  
**Volume:** 137  
**Issue:** 11  
**DOI:** [10.1103/mwl6-8nzl](https://dx.doi.org/10.1103/mwl6-8nzl)

## Abstract

First-principles predictions of excitation energies and cross sections in inelastic tunneling spectroscopy are challenging, making it difficult to assign experimental features to specific excitations. There is, however, a need for a reliable identification of conductance features. We investigated the spin- 1 / 2 molecule cobaltocene on superconducting Pb(110) and employ Yu-Shiba-Rusinov states combined with a superconducting tip to detect a large number of sharp spectral features. From an analysis of the peak heights at both bias voltage polarities along with model calculations and density-functional theory results we identify spin, vibrational, and orbital excitations that coexist within a single conductance spectrum. The peak height asymmetry turns out to be a useful indicator to determine the type of excitation.

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