TY  - JOUR
AU  - Härtl, Patrick
AU  - Vogt, Matthias
AU  - Leisegang, Markus
AU  - Bihlmayer, Gustav
AU  - Blügel, Stefan
AU  - Bode, Matthias
TI  - Spin Spiral State at a Ferromagnetic Gd Vacuum Interface
JO  - Physical review letters
VL  - 133
IS  - 18
SN  - 0031-9007
CY  - College Park, Md.
PB  - APS
M1  - FZJ-2024-06006
SP  - 186701
PY  - 2024
AB  - Centrosymmetric bulk magnets made of layered Gd intermetallics had been discovered recently to exhibit helical spin spirals with a wavelength of ≈2  nm that transform into skyrmion lattices at certain magnetic fields. Here we report on the observation of a spin spiral state at the Gd(0001) surface. Spin-polarized scanning tunneling microscopy images show striped regions with a periodicity of about 2 nm. These stripes rearrange upon application of an external magnetic field, thereby unambiguously confirming their magnetic origin. Density functional theory calculations explain that competing exchange interactions in the surface layer of Gd(0001) together with a magnetovolume fine-tuning of the exchange interaction to the next Gd layer favor a chiral 2 nm conical spin spiral at the surface, arising as a general behavior of the Gd monolayer.
LB  - PUB:(DE-HGF)16
C6  - 39547160
UR  - <Go to ISI:>//WOS:001345652000005
DO  - DOI:10.1103/PhysRevLett.133.186701
UR  - https://juser.fz-juelich.de/record/1032120
ER  -