Design of magnetic textures of nanocorrals with an extra adatom

Abstract

It is shown that in antiferromagnetic open or closed corrals of magnetic adatoms grown on surfaces, the attachment of a single extra adatom anywhere in the corral impacts on the geometrical topology of the nanosystem and generates complex magnetic structures when a magnetic field is applied or a magnetic coupling to a ferromagnetic substrate exists. The spin configuration of the corral can be tuned to a nonplanar state or a planar noncollinear or ferrimagnetic state by adjusting its number of sites, the location of the extra adatom, or the strength of the coupling to the ferromagnetic substrate. This shows the possibility to generate nontrivial magnetic textures with atom-by-atom engineering anywhere in the corral and not only at the edges.

Zero-temperature configurations of short odd-numbered classical spin chains with bilinear and biquadratic exchange interactions

“…In the case of open chains this description is valid down to low s ≥ 3 2 [12]. This agreement has also been demonstrated for low s for open and closed chains with an extra spin attached [25].…”

“…The biquadratic exchange in odd chains could thus provide a means to control the magnitude of the total magnetization, as well as its distribution among the spins. Since classical spins provide a very good approximation of the behavior of the chain down to relatively small spin magnitudes s [12,25], the findings in this paper show that apart from extra spins attached to the chain its magnetic properties can be manipulated by additional interaction terms allowed from the theoretical point of view. An infinitesimally small magnetic field picks out from the J ′ > J 2 degenerate zero field configurations (Sec.…”

Non-collinear magnetism induced by frustration in transition-metal nanostructures deposited on surfaces

“…But as soon as an additional Mn adatom is attached to the corral, noncollinear orientations of the magnetic moments are induced along the whole corrals similarly to the simulations presented in Ref. [38].…”

“…On the other hand, interaction with a magnetic substrate of a fixed-moment orientation stabilizes only one or perhaps a few of these infinitely many states. This Neel state is an example of intra-cluster frustration that can occur in clusters deposited on non-magnetic surfaces with a triangular symmetry such as fcc(111) surfaces [29,[31][32][33][34][35][36][37][38] (e.g. Cu(111), Au(111) or Pt(111)).…”

Influence of the biquadratic exchange interaction in the classical ground state magnetic response of the antiferromagnetic icosahedron

“…More generally, progress in the synthesis of metal complexes has led to the production of nanosized magnetic molecules containing a few dozens of interacting magnetic metal ions, creating the class of molecular nanomagnets [4]. Another way to fabricate small magnetic entities is artificial engineering, where clusters of magnetic ions are fabricated directly on insulating surfaces and their magnetic properties are measured with scanning tunneling microscopy [5,6]. It is thus desirable to classify relatively small molecules according to their magnetic properties, which depend on their topology, the magnitude of the individual spins and the nature of the interactions between them.…”