Can 5 d transition-metal monolayers BE magnetic on ferromagnetic substrate?

Abstract

The magnetic properties of X/5Fe/X (X: Hf, Ta, W, Re, Os, Ir, Pt) have been studied by means of the full-potential linearized augmented-plane-wave method, in which the core states are treated fully relativistically and the valence states are treated semirelativistically and the generalized gradient approximations' (GCA) exchange-correlation potentials are employed for 5 d elements. It has been found that Hf, Ta, W, Re and Os overlayers on Fe(0 0 1) are almost nonmagnetic. Following this trend, if the spin–orbit interactions are taken into account, the magnetism of Ir and Pt overlayers is expected to be killed as for the Ag(0 0 1) and Au(0 0 1) substrate. So the nonexistence of the magnetism for 5 d overlayers is furtherly verified on ferromagnetic substrate besides on nonmagnetic substrate. Moreover, due to the more extended 5 d orbitals as compared to those of 3 d and 4 d, much stronger hybridizations between the 5 d states of the overlayer and the Fe substrate exist, which greatly suppress the magnetic moment of the interface Fe layer.