Illustrative view on the magnetocrystalline anisotropy of adatoms and monolayers

Abstract

Even though it has been known for decades that the magnetocrystalline anisotropy is linked to the spin-orbit coupling (SOC), the mechanism how it arises for specific systems is still subject of debate. We focused on finding markers of SOC in the density of states (DOS) and on employing them for understanding the source of magnetocrystalline anisotropy 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 magnetocrystalline anisotropy for adatoms comes from pushing of the SOC-split states above or below the Fermi level. As a result of this, the magnetocrystalline anisotropy 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.

References in corpus (10)

• Constituents of magnetic anisotropy and a screening of spin-orbit coupling in solids
• Magnetism of iron: from the bulk to the monoatomic wire
• Transition-metal dimers and physical limits on magnetic anisotropy
• Giant magnetic anisotropy and tunnelling of the magnetization in Li2(Li_{1-x}Fe_x)N
• Magnetocrystalline Anisotropy Energy of Transition Metal Thin Films: A Non-perturbative Theory
• Trends in the magnetic properties of Fe, Co and Ni clusters and monolayers on Ir(111), Pt(111) and Au(111)
• Band-filling effect on magnetic anisotropy using a Green's function method
• Magnetocrystalline Anisotropy Energy of a Transition Metal Monolayer: A Non-perturbative Theory
• Magnetocrystalline anisotropy energy for adatoms and monolayers on non-magnetic substrates: where does it comes from?
• Second-order Perturbation Formula for Magnetocrystalline Anisotropy using Orbital Angular Momentum Matrix

Cited by in corpus (8)

• Magnetocrystalline anisotropy of FePt: a detailed view
• Chiral magnetism of magnetic adatoms generated by Rashba electrons
• Room-temperature superparamagnetism due to giant magnetic anisotropy in Mo${}_S$ defected single-layer MoS${}_2$
• Valence state determines the band magnetocrystalline anisotropy in 2D rare-earth/noble-metal compounds
• Influence of spin-orbit coupling on the magnetic dipole term $T_{\alpha }$
• Assessing different approaches to ab initio calculations of spin wave stiffness
• Spin, atomic and inter-atomic orbital magnetism induced by 3d nanostructures deposited on transition metal surfaces
• Spin-spiral state of a Mn monolayer on W(110) studied by soft x-ray absorption spectroscopy at variable temperatures