TY  - CHART
AU  - Härtl, Patrick
AU  - Bode, Matthias
AU  - Blügel, Stefan
AU  - Härtl, Patrick
AU  - Leisegang, Markus
AU  - Bihlmayer, Gustav
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
PB  - University of Würzburg
M1  - FZJ-2024-06324
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. Spinpolarized 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.
KW  - Physics (Other)
KW  - Spin-polarized scanning tunneling microscopy (Other)
KW  - Rare-earth magnetic materials (Other)
KW  - Spin Reorientation Transition (Other)
KW  - Density functional theory (Other)
KW  - Magnetic interactions (Other)
KW  - Exchange interaction (Other)
KW  - Ferromagnetism (Other)
LB  - PUB:(DE-HGF)32
DO  - DOI:10.58160/EXFEGUR3WV777F1K
UR  - https://juser.fz-juelich.de/record/1032536
ER  -