Mixed 4f population of Tm adatoms on insulating CuN islands.

The electronic properties of Tm and Lu atoms adsorbed on nanoscale Cu2N insulating islands and on a clean Cu(100) surface have been investigated by scanning tunnelling microscopy and spectroscopy, and density functional calculations modelling the electronic structure of the rare earth atoms were performed. While Lu adatoms display the same spectra on both surfaces, tunnelling spectra of Tm on Cu2N indicate a state at ≃0.8 V or ≃1.

Antiferromagnetic Spin Coupling between Rare Earth Adatoms and Iron Islands Probed by Spin-Polarized Tunneling.

High-density magnetic storage or quantum computing could be achieved using small magnets with large magnetic anisotropy, a requirement that rare-earth iron alloys fulfill in bulk. This compelling property demands a thorough investigation of the magnetism in low dimensional rare-earth iron structures. Here, we report on the magnetic coupling between 4f single atoms and a 3d magnetic nanoisland.

Magnetic and magnetoelastic properties of epitaxial SmFe2 thin film.

We report on magnetic and magnetoelastic measurements for a 5000 Å (110) SmFe(2) thin film, which was successfully analyzed by means of a point charge model for describing the effect of the epitaxial growth in this kind of system. Some of the main conclusions of the Mössbauer and magnetoelastic results and the new magnetization results up to 5 T allow us to get a full description of the crystal electric field, exchange, and magnetoelastic behavior in this compound. So, new single-ion parameters are obtained for the crystal field interaction of samarium ions, A(4)(r(4)) = +755 K/ion and A(6)(r(6)) = -180 K/ion, and new single-ion magnetoelastic coupling B(γ,2) is approximately equal -200 MPa and B(ε,2) is approximately equal MPa, which represent the tetragonal and the in-plane shear deformations, respectively.

Magnetoelastic nature of the dodecagonal anisotropy in holmium metal.

We have investigated the magnetoelastic nature of the dodecagonal anisotropy in the magnetic anisotropy energy (MAE) in the basal plane of the hcp crystalline structure in holmium single crystal. We have proved that the origin of the second harmonic of the hexagonal symmetry in MAE clearly lies on a sixth-order magnetoelastic coupling term. The appearance of a 12-fold anisotropy in MAE in a single crystal having hexagonal symmetry provides a new insight on how the magnetic anisotropy can be modified in a magnetic material with giant spin-lattice coupling.

Magnetization process in holmium: easy axis spin reorientation induced by the magnetostrictive basal plane distortion.

We report on the change of the easy axis direction in holmium, from the a to the b axis, under the application of a magnetic field in the basal plane. This spin reorientation is observed by measuring the magnetic torque in Ho(n)/Lu(15) superlattices (n and 15 are the number of atomic planes in the Ho and Lu blocks). We also observe that, at the field H0 and temperature at which the reorientation occurs, both axes are easy directions.