Ultrafast magnon generation in an Fe film on Cu(100)

We report on a combined experimental and theoretical study of the spin-dependent relaxation processes in the electron system of an iron film on Cu(100). Spin-, time-, energy- and angle-resolved two-photon photoemission shows a strong characteristic dependence of the lifetime of photoexcited electrons on their spin and energy. Ab?initio calculations as well as a many-body treatment corroborate that the observed properties are determined by relaxation processes involving magnon emission. Thereby we demonstrate that magnon emission by hot electrons occurs on the femtosecond time scale and thus provides a significant source of ultrafast spin-flip processes. Furthermore, engineering of the magnon spectrum paves the way for tuning the dynamic properties of magnetic materials.     

Rapid crack growth in a thermoelastic solid under mixed-mode thermomechanical loading

A two-dimensional steady-sate analysis of semi-infinite brittlecrack growth at a constant subcritical rate in an unboundedfully-coupled thermoelastic solid under mixed-mode thermomechanicalloading is made. The loading consists of normal and shear tractionsand heat fluxes applied as point sources (line loads in theout-of-plane direction). A related problem is solved exactly in an integral transformspace, and robust asymptotic forms used to reduce the originalproblem to a set of integral equations. The equations are partiallycoupled and exhibit operators of both Cauchy and Abel types,yet can be solved analytically. The temperature change field at a distance from the moving crackedge is then constructed, and its dominant term is found tobe controlled by the imposed heat fluxes. The role of this termis, indeed, enhanced if the heat fluxes serve to render thecrack as a net heat source/sink for the solid, as opposed tobeing a transmitter of heat across its plane. More generally,the influence of the thermoelastic coupling on this field, aswell as other functions, is found to increase with crack speed.     

Weakly dispersive band near the fermi level of GaMnAs due to Mn interstitials

The nature of the weakly dispersive electronic band near the Fermi level observed in photoemission experiments on the diluted magnetic semiconductor GaMnAs is investigated theoretically. The combination of experimental features appears puzzling. We show that the formation of the band is closely related to the presence of the Mn interstitial impurities. The states forming the band have predominantly minority-spin Mn-3d character. The low experimental Mn-3d intensity is explained by the low content of the interstitial Mn impurities. The features of the band are robust with respect to the calculational technique [local density approximation (LDA), LDA + U].     

On the energetics of transversal and longitudinal fluctuations of atomic magnetic moments

By constrained spin-density functional calculations we estimate the relative role of the longitudinal and transversal fluctuations of the magnetic moments in the series of 3d metals (bcc Fe, hcp and fcc Co, and fcc Ni) for weak excitations from the ferromagnetic ground state. It is shown that the importance of longitudinal fluctuations strongly varies from relatively small in bcc Fe to large in fcc Ni. This means that a consistent adiabatic treatment of the low-energy spin fluctuations should include independent longitudinal fluctuations.     

Synthetic magnetic opals

We present studies of novel nanocomposites of BiNi impregnated into the structure of opals as well as inverse opals. Atomic force microscopy and high resolution elemental analyses show a highly ordered structure and uniform distribution of the BiNi filler in the matrix. These BiNi-based nanocomposites are found to exhibit distinct ferromagnetic-like ordering with transition temperature of about 675 K. As far as we know there exists no report in literature on any BiNi compound which is magnetic.     

Mn-stabilized zirconia: from imitation diamonds to a new potential high-Tc ferromagnetic spintronics material

From the basis of ab initio electronic structure calculations which include the effects of thermally excited magnetic fluctuations, we predict Mn-stabilized cubic zirconia to be ferromagnetic above 500 K. We find this material, which is well known both as an imitation diamond and as a catalyst, to be half-metallic with the majority and minority spin Mn impurity states lying in zirconia's wide gap. The Mn concentration can exceed 40%. The high-Tc ferromagnetism is robust to oxygen vacancy defects and to how the Mn impurities are distributed on the Zr fcc sublattice. We propose this ceramic as a promising future spintronics material.     

The energies and life times of magnons in bulk iron and one-monolayer Fe film

The dynamic magnetic susceptibility is calculated for bulk bcc iron, a supported monolayer Fe/W(1 1 0) and corresponding free standing Fe monolayer. The calculational approach is based on linear response density functional theory formulated within the framework of Korringa–Kohn–Rostoker Green's function method. The calculated susceptibilities are analyzed in terms of dispersion and damping of spin-waves. The results for bulk Fe are in good agreement with experiment and previous theoretical studies. In contrast to the bulk phase, the spin-wave excitations in thin films are well defined in the whole two-dimensional Brillouin zone. It is shown that a non-magnetic substrate changes strongly both the dispersion and damping of the spin-waves.