TY - JOUR
T1 - High magnetic moments and anisotropies for FexCo1-x monolayers on Pt(111)
AU - Moulas, G.
AU - Lehnert, A.
AU - Rusponi, S.
AU - Zabloudil, J.
AU - Etz, C.
AU - Ouazi, S.
AU - Etzkorn, M.
AU - Bencok, P.
AU - Gambardella, P.
AU - Weinberger, P.
AU - Brune, H.
PY - 2008/12/1
Y1 - 2008/12/1
N2 - The magnetism of 1-ML-thick films of Fex Co1-x on Pt(111) was investigated both experimentally, by x-ray magnetic circular dichroism and magneto-optical Kerr effect measurements, and theoretically, by first-principles electronic structure calculations, as a function of the film chemical composition. The calculated Fe and Co spin moments are only weakly dependent on the composition and close to 3 μB /atom and 2 μB /atom, respectively. This trend is also seen in the experimental data, except for pure Fe, where an effective spin moment of only Seff = (1.2±0.2) μB /atom was measured. On the other hand, both the orbital moment and the magnetic anisotropy energy show a strong composition dependence with maxima close to the Fe0.5 Co0.5 stoichiometry. The experiment, in agreement with theory, gives a maximum magnetic anisotropy energy of 0.5 meV/atom, which is more than 2 orders of magnitude larger than the value observed in bulk bcc FeCo and close to that observed for the L 10 phase of FePt. The calculations clearly demonstrate that this composition dependence is the result of a fine tuning in the occupation number of the d x2 - y2 and dxy orbitals due to the Fe-Co electronic hybridization. © 2008 The American Physical Society.
AB - The magnetism of 1-ML-thick films of Fex Co1-x on Pt(111) was investigated both experimentally, by x-ray magnetic circular dichroism and magneto-optical Kerr effect measurements, and theoretically, by first-principles electronic structure calculations, as a function of the film chemical composition. The calculated Fe and Co spin moments are only weakly dependent on the composition and close to 3 μB /atom and 2 μB /atom, respectively. This trend is also seen in the experimental data, except for pure Fe, where an effective spin moment of only Seff = (1.2±0.2) μB /atom was measured. On the other hand, both the orbital moment and the magnetic anisotropy energy show a strong composition dependence with maxima close to the Fe0.5 Co0.5 stoichiometry. The experiment, in agreement with theory, gives a maximum magnetic anisotropy energy of 0.5 meV/atom, which is more than 2 orders of magnitude larger than the value observed in bulk bcc FeCo and close to that observed for the L 10 phase of FePt. The calculations clearly demonstrate that this composition dependence is the result of a fine tuning in the occupation number of the d x2 - y2 and dxy orbitals due to the Fe-Co electronic hybridization. © 2008 The American Physical Society.
U2 - 10.1103/PhysRevB.78.214424
DO - 10.1103/PhysRevB.78.214424
M3 - Article
VL - 78
IS - 21
M1 - 214424
ER -