Giant magnetic anisotropy of single cobalt atoms and nanoparticles |
| |
Authors: | Gambardella P Rusponi S Veronese M Dhesi S S Grazioli C Dallmeyer A Cabria I Zeller R Dederichs P H Kern K Carbone C Brune H |
| |
Affiliation: | Institut de Physique des Nanostructures, Ecole Polytechnique Fédérale de Lausanne, CH-1015 Lausanne, Switzerland. pietro.gambardella@epfl.ch |
| |
Abstract: | The isotropic magnetic moment of a free atom is shown to develop giant magnetic anisotropy energy due to symmetry reduction at an atomically ordered surface. Single cobalt atoms deposited onto platinum (111) are found to have a magnetic anisotropy energy of 9 millielectron volts per atom arising from the combination of unquenched orbital moments (1.1 Bohr magnetons) and strong spin-orbit coupling induced by the platinum substrate. By assembling cobalt nanoparticles containing up to 40 atoms, the magnetic anisotropy energy is further shown to be dependent on single-atom coordination changes. These results confirm theoretical predictions and are of fundamental value to understanding how magnetic anisotropy develops in finite-sized magnetic particles. |
| |
Keywords: | |
本文献已被 PubMed 等数据库收录! |