Artigo Acesso aberto Revisado por pares

Antiferromagnetic Spin Coupling between Rare Earth Adatoms and Iron Islands Probed by Spin-Polarized Tunneling

2015; Nature Portfolio; Volume: 5; Issue: 1 Linguagem: Inglês

10.1038/srep13709

ISSN

2045-2322

Autores

David Coffey, José Luis Diez-Ferrer, David Serrate, M. Ciria, C. de la Fuente, J. I. Arnaudas,

Tópico(s)

Quantum and electron transport phenomena

Resumo

High-density magnetic storage or quantum computing could be achieved using small magnets with large magnetic anisotropy, a requirement that rare-earth iron alloys fulfill in bulk. This compelling property demands a thorough investigation of the magnetism in low dimensional rare-earth iron structures. Here, we report on the magnetic coupling between 4f single atoms and a 3d magnetic nanoisland. Thulium and lutetium adatoms deposited on iron monolayer islands pseudomorphically grown on W(110) have been investigated at low temperature with scanning tunneling microscopy and spectroscopy. The spin-polarized current indicates that both kind of adatoms have in-plane magnetic moments, which couple antiferromagnetically with their underlying iron islands. Our first-principles calculations explain the observed behavior, predicting an antiparallel coupling of the induced 5d electrons magnetic moment of the lanthanides with the 3d magnetic moment of iron, as well as their in-plane orientation, and pointing to a non-contribution of 4f electrons to the spin-polarized tunneling processes in rare earths.

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