Novel type of atomic-scale spin lattice at a surface and its emergent Hall effect

TL;DR

This paper predicts a novel atomic-scale spin lattice at a surface that, despite minimal net magnetization, exhibits a significant anomalous Hall effect driven by its topological spin texture, based on theoretical calculations.

Contribution

It introduces a new type of atomic-scale spin lattice at a surface and demonstrates its emergent Hall effect through theoretical modeling and simulations.

Findings

Discovery of a 3x3 spin lattice structure on Fe/Ir(001) surface

Prediction of a large anomalous Hall effect from the spin texture

Identification of a topological contribution to the Hall effect

Abstract

We predict the occurrence of a novel type of atomic-scale spin lattice in an Fe monolayer on the Ir(001) surface. Based on density functional theory calculations we parametrize a spin Hamiltonian and solve it numerically using Monte-Carlo simulations. We find the stabilization of a three-dimensional spin structure arranged on a 3x3 lattice. Despite an almost vanishing total magnetization we predict the emergence of a large anomalous Hall effect, to which there is a significant topological contribution purely due to the real space spin texture at the surface.