Magnetic structure

About: Magnetic structure is a research topic. Over the lifetime, 10787 publications have been published within this topic receiving 207143 citations.

Magnetic anisotropy of Fe and Co ultrathin films deposited on Rh(111) and Pt(111) substrates: An experimental and first-principles investigation

Abstract: We report on a combined experimental and theoretical investigation of the magnetic anisotropy of Fe and Co ultrathin layers on strongly polarizable metal substrates. Monolayer (ML) films of Co and Fe on Rh(111) have been investigated in situ by x-ray magnetic circular dichroism (XMCD), magneto-optic Kerr effect, and scanning tunneling microscopy. The experiments show that both magnetic adlayers exhibit ferromagnetic order and enhanced spin and orbital moments compared to the bulk metals. The easy magnetization axis of 1 ML Co was found to be in plane, in contrast to Co/Pt(111), and that of 1 ML Fe out of plane. The magnetic anisotropy energy (MAE) derived from the magnetization curves of the Fe and Co films is one order of magnitude larger than the respective bulk values. XMCD spectra measured at the Rh M2,3 edges evidence significant magnetic polarization of the Rh(111) surface with the induced magnetization closely following that of the overlayer during the reversal process. The easy axis of 1–3 ML Co/Rh(111) shows an oscillatory in-plane/out-of-plane behavior due to the competition between dipolar and crystalline MAE. We present a comprehensive theoretical treatment of the magnetic anisotropy of Fe and Co layers on Rh(111) and Pt(111) substrates. For free-standing hexagonally close-packed monolayers the MAE is in plane for Co and out of plane for Fe. The interaction with the substrate inverts the sign of the electronic contribution to the MAE, except for Fe/Rh(111), where the MAE is only strongly reduced. For Co/Rh(111), the dipolar contribution outweighs the band contribution, resulting in an in-plane MAE in agreement with experiment while for Co/Pt(111) the larger band contribution dominates, resulting in an out-of-plane MAE. For Fe films however, the calculations predict for both substrates an in-plane anisotropy in contradiction to the experiment. At least for Fe/Pt(111) comparison of theory and experiment suggests that the magnetic structure of the adlayer is more complex than the homogenous ferromagnetic order assumed in the calculations. The angular momentum and layer-resolved contributions of the overlayer and substrate to the MAE and orbital moment anisotropy are discussed with respect to the anisotropic hybridization of the 3d, 4d, and 5d electron states and vertical relaxation. The role of technically relevant parameters such as the thickness of the surface slab, density of k points in the Brillouin zone, and electron-density functionals is carefully analyzed.

Giant exchange bias and the vertical shifts of hysteresis loops in γ-Fe2O3-coated Fe nanoparticles

Abstract: We fabricated core/shell-structured Fe nanoparticles, in which the α-Fe core is about 5 nm in diameter and the γ-Fe2O3 shell is about 3 nm thick, and systematically studied their structural and magnetic properties. The magnetic hysteresis (M–H) loops, measured at low temperatures, after the particles were cooled from 350 K in a 50 kOe field, show significant shifts in both horizontal and vertical directions. It has been found that the exchange-bias field can be as large as 6.3 kOe at 2 K, and that the coercive field is also enhanced greatly in the field-cooled (FC) loops. The large exchange bias and vertical shifts of the FC loops at low temperatures may be ascribed to the frozen spins in the shells. A simple model is proposed to interpret the observations.

The magnetic structure of non-stoichiometric ferrous oxide

Abstract: Neutron diffraction experiments have been carried out at room temperature and 42K on polycrystalline samples of FezO with z=0943, 0938 and 0929 At room temperature, the ratio of octahedral iron vacancies to tetrahedral iron interstitials is close to 3 and is therefore in agreement with the defect cluster proposed by Catlow and Fender (1975) Examination of the 42K data has led to a model for magnetic ordering around the clusters The interstitial cations and surrounding iron atoms are coupled by an antiferromagnetic exchange interaction The spins in this region lie in the (111) plane, not along (111) as in the defect-free regions The number of spins lying in the (111) plane is consistent with Catlow and Fender's model