https://doi.org/10.1007/s100530050532
Magnetization of Gd13 cluster: Anomalous thermal behavior
1
Department of Physics and Astronomy and The Center for Fundamental Materials
Research,
Michigan State University, East Lansing, MI 48824, USA
2
Department of Physics, Virginia Commonwealth University, Richmond, VA 23284-2000,
USA
Received:
29
May
1999
Revised:
5
September
1999
Published online: 15 April 2000
Theoretical studies of the temperature (T) dependence of magnetization of Gd13 clusters have been carried out within a classical Heisenberg model using Monte-Carlo simulations. It is shown that for a broad range of values of γ, defined as the ratio between competing ferro and anti-ferro magnetic couplings, the cluster magnetization increases with T in the low T region, as seen in experiment. The clusters are also shown to exhibit a wide distribution of moments at a given T, which broadens significantly with increasing T. It is suggested that this may affect the observed magnetic behavior of magnetic clusters in Stern-Gerlach experiments.
PACS: 31.15.Ar – Ab initio calculations / 36.40.-c – Atomic and molecular clusters / 71.24.+q – Electronic structure of clusters and nanoparticles
© EDP Sciences, Società Italiana di Fisica, Springer-Verlag, 2000
