We have studied the evolution of the magnetic properties of monolayer-high cobalt islands on a Pt(111) surface as function of their exposure to oxygen. We observe a sequential quenching of magnetic anisotropy and magnetic moment. For minute exposures to oxygen this leads to an enhancement of the maximum susceptibility of up to 66% for ′′. We show that the reason for the reduction of the anisotropy before the one of the moment is due to preferential oxygen adsorption at the island edges, which are the main source of magnetic anisotropy. Our example shows how the enhanced chemical reactivity, combined with the enhanced anisotropy of low coordinated atoms, leads to surprising changes of magnetic properties upon exposure to oxygen.
IntroductionDue to their reduced dimensions, small metallic magnetic particles created by metal epitaxy at surfaces are very sensitive to pollution, in particular to oxidation. The effect of oxidation on magnetic properties can be quite complex. Therefore partial oxidation may provide helpful insight into the origin of magnetic properties, such as magneto-crystalline anisotropy. Generally, oxidation degrades the magnetic properties; for instance, it reduces the anisotropy. 1 However, in some particular systems it may dramatically increase the anisotropy, e.g., due to exchange coupling with an antiferromagnetic CoO shell. 2 One of the major questions coming up when dealing with very small nanoparticles is the influence of their shape and interfaces on the anisotropy. 3-7 For supported cobalt chains, 8 and for very small cobalt islands, 9 the anisotropy per atom K is increased with respect to bulk or thin film values. In the limit of single adatoms this increase is more than 2 orders of magnitude. 10 Due to the reduced atomic coordination the atoms recover part of their gas phase properties; e.g., their orbital moment is significantly larger than in bulk, where it is almost entirely quenched due to crystal field and delocalization effects. The higher orbital moments are related to a larger anisotropy of orbital moments, which in turn causes by spin-orbit coupling a higher magneto-crystalline anisotropy energy. 6 As a consequence of this strong coordination effect, the anisotropy of twodimensional cobalt islands grown on Pt (111) is principally determined by the edge atoms. 6 On the other hand, the overall magnetic moment of an island is determined by all atoms approximately to equal parts because the spin moment is largely independent of coordination and it overwhelms the orbital moment. As the anisotropy is strongly dependent on the particular structure of the islands, the effect of oxidation on K should strongly depend on the island dimensionality. In particular, monolayer-high islands should be very sensitive to pollution because all atoms are interfacial. There are two interfaces to be considered, the two-dimensional (2D) island and it's one-dimensional (1D) perimeter. It is the scope of this paper to study how these different interfaces are affected by oxidation and what the consequenc...