Illustrative view on the magnetocrystalline anisotropy of adatoms and monolayers

0465112 - FZÚ 2017 RIV US eng J - Journal Article
Šipr, Ondřej - Mankovsky, S. - Polesya, S. - Bornemann, S. - Minár, J. - Ebert, H.
Illustrative view on the magnetocrystalline anisotropy of adatoms and monolayers.
Physical Review B. Roč. 93, č. 17 (2016), s. 1-13, č. článku 174409. ISSN 2469-9950. E-ISSN 2469-9969
R&D Projects: GA ČR(CZ) GAP108/11/0853
Institutional support: RVO:68378271
Keywords : magnetic anisotropy * adatom * monolayer * spin-orbit coupling
Subject RIV: BM - Solid Matter Physics ; Magnetism
Impact factor: 3.836, year: 2016

We focused on finding markers of spin-orbit coupling (SOC) in the density of states (DOS) and on employing them for understanding the source of magnetocrystalline anisotropy (MCA) for the case of adatoms and monolayers. Fully relativistic ab-initio KKR-Green function calculations were performed for Fe, Co, and Ni adatoms and monolayers on Au(111) to investigate changes in the orbital-resolved DOS due to a rotation of magnetization. In this way one can see that a significant contribution to the MCA for adatoms comes from pushing of the SOC-split states above or below the Fermi level. As a result of this, the MCA energy crucially depends on the position of the energy bands of the adatom with respect to the Fermi level of the substrate. This view is supported by model crystal field Hamiltonian calculations.
Permanent Link: http://hdl.handle.net/11104/0263822