Resolving the spin polarization and magnetic domain wall width of (Nd,Dy)2Fe14B with spin-polarized scanning tunneling microscopy
- 13 October 2021
- journal article
- research article
- Published by IOP Publishing in Applied Physics Express
- Vol. 14 (11), 115504
- https://doi.org/10.35848/1882-0786/ac2a56
Abstract
The electronic structure and the domain wall width of industrial (Nd,Dy)2Fe14B hard magnets were investigated using low-temperature, spin-polarized scanning tunneling microscopy (STM) in ultra-high vacuum. In a first step, atomically clean and flat surfaces were prepared. The flat terraces are separated by monatomic steps. Surface termination was identified as the Fe c layer from atomically resolved STM imaging. The electronic density of states and its spin polarization agree well with ab initio predictions of the Fe c layer. High resolution spin-polarized STM images allowed to finally resolve the domain wall width Wm of only 3.2 ± 0.4 nm.Keywords
Funding Information
- Ministry of Education, Culture, Sports, Science and Technology (Leading Initiative for Excellent Young Researchers)
- Japan Society for the Promotion of Science (JP19H02595)
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