The effect of the local surface charge density on the magnetic moment of an iron adatom from ab initio results

Abstract

We report ab initio results of the induced density of states and of the magnetic moment of an isolated iron adatom on a simple metal surface. The calculation is performed in the framework of the embedding method, using the density functional theory in the local spin density approximation. The effect of the surface electronic charge distribution on the magnetic moment of the adatom is studied by varying the atom–metal distance. The relationship between the magnetic moment of an iron impurity on a surface and in the bulk is discussed.