MAGNETISM IN TRANSITION-METAL CLUSTERS FROM THE ATOM TO THE BULK

Abstract

Molecular beam deflection measurements of small iron, cobalt, and nickel clusters show how magnetism develops as the cluster size is increased from several tens to several hundreds of atoms for temperatures from 80 and 1000 K. Cluster magnetization is found to be superparamagnetic for rotationally warm clusters, where it follows the Langevin function. The magnetization of rotationally cold clusters is anomalous: it is strongly reduced and nonlinear with the applied field. For superparamagnetic clusters, the magnetic moments can be determined from the magnetization. We find that ferromagnetism occurs even for the smallest sizes: for clusters with less than about 30 atoms the magnetic moments are atom-like and as the size is increased up to 700 atoms they approach the bulk limit, with oscillations probably caused by surface-induced spin-density waves. The trends are explained in a magnetic shell model. The magnetic properties of iron cluster show anomalies, suggesting that a high moment to low moment crystallographic phase transition in Fe clusters occurs at relatively low temperatures.