Changing the Magnetic Configurations of Nanoclusters Atom-by-Atom

TL;DR

This paper investigates how the magnetic configurations of Mn and Cr nanoclusters on Ni(111) surfaces can be controlled atom-by-atom, revealing potential for nanoscale magnetic switching in data storage applications.

Contribution

It applies the KKR Green function method to analyze non-collinear magnetic structures of various nanoclusters, demonstrating how structural changes influence magnetic states.

Findings

Compact clusters have small total moments.

Open structures exhibit larger total moments.

Single adatom motion can switch cluster magnetization.

Abstract

The Korringa-Kohn-Rostoker Green (KKR) function method for non-collinear magnetic structures was applied on Mn and Cr ad-clusters deposited on the Ni(111) surface. By considering various dimers, trimers and tetramers, a large amount of collinear and non-collinear magnetic structures is obtained. Typically all compact clusters have very small total moments, while the more open structures exhibit sizeable total moments, which is a result of the complex frustration mechanism in these systems. Thus, as the motion of a single adatom changes the cluster structure from compact to open and vice versa, this can be considered as a magnetic switch, which via the local exchange field of the adatom allows to switch the cluster moment on and off, and which might be useful for future nanosize information storage.