Magnetic properties of single rare-earth atoms on graphene/Ir(111)
JULY, 2018
Romana Baltic, Fabio Donati, Aparajita Singha, Christian Wäckerlin, Jan Dreiser, Bernard Delley, Marina Pivetta, Stefano Rusponi, and Harald Brune
Physical Review B 98, 024412 (2018)
Description
We employed x-ray absorption spectroscopy and x-ray magnetic circular dichroism to study the magnetic properties of single rare-earth atoms adsorbed on the graphene/Ir(111) surface. The interaction of these atoms with graphene determines the filling of their 4f orbitals. Among the studied rare earth atoms, dysprosium is the only one that shows magnetic hysteresis and remanence at 2.5 K. By comparing measured spectra and magnetization curves with multiplet calculations, we determine the energy diagram of the magnetic states and show the relaxation process that determines the timescale of magnetic bistability for each investigated element.
Abstract
We employed x-ray absorption spectroscopy and x-ray magnetic circular dichroism to study the magnetic properties of single rare-earth (RE) atoms (Nd, Tb, Dy, Ho, and Er) adsorbed on the graphene/Ir(111) surface. The interaction of RE atoms with graphene results for Tb in a trivalent state with 4fn−1 occupancy, and in a divalent state with 4fn occupancy for all other studied RE atoms (n corresponds to the 4f occupancy of free atoms). Among the studied RE on graphene/Ir(111), Dy is the only one that shows magnetic hysteresis and remanence at 2.5 K. By comparing measured spectra and magnetization curves with multiplet calculations, we determine the energy diagram of the magnetic states and show for each element the magnetization reversal process that determines the timescale of its magnetic bistability.