Eur. Phys. J. D 45, 521-528 (2007)
https://doi.org/10.1140/epjd/e2007-00238-x

Temperature dependent magnetic spin and orbital moments of mass-filtered cobalt clusters on Au(111)

¹ Institut für Oberflächenchemie und Katalyse, Universität Ulm, Albert-Einstein-Allee 47, 89069 Ulm, Germany
² Institut für Physik, Universität Rostock, Universitätsplatz 3, 18051 Rostock, Germany
³ Institut für Angewandte Physik, Universität Düsseldorf, Universitätsstrasse 1, 40225 Düsseldorf, Germany
⁴ Institut für Experimentalphysik, Universität Hamburg, Luruper Chaussee 149, 22761 Hamburg, Germany
⁵ Institut de Physique et de Chimie des Matériaux de Strasbourg, UMR 7504 CNRS-Université Louis Pasteur, BP 43, 23 rue de Loess, 67034 Strasbourg Cedex 2, France

Corresponding authors: ^a joachim.bansmann@uni-ulm.de - ^b armin.kleibert@physik.uni-rostock.de

Received: 23 February 2007
Revised: 22 June 2007
Published online: 20 July 2007

Abstract

Mass-filtered cobalt clusters with a size of 8 nm have been deposited in-situ under soft-landing conditions onto Au(111). The spin and orbital moments of the Co nanoparticles on a Au (111) single crystal have been investigated as a function of the temperature using the element-specific method of X-ray magnetic circular dichroism in photoabsorption. The results hint at an temperature-dependent spin-reorientation transition which is discussed with respect to different contribution to the magnetic anisotropy. Furthermore, by means of an in-situ oxidation experiment, the influence of an exposure to oxygen on the properties of the cobalt clusters has been investigated.