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APS » Journals » Phys. Rev. Lett. » Volume 96 » Issue 6
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Phys. Rev. Lett. 96, 067204 (2006) [4 pages]

Effect of Spin-Orbit Interaction on a Magnetic Impurity in the Vicinity of a Surface

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L. Szunyogh1,2, G. Zaránd1, S. Gallego3, M. C. Muñoz3, and B. L. Györffy2,4
1Department of Theoretical Physics and Center for Applied Mathematics and Computational Physics, Budapest University of Technology and Economics, Budafoki út. 8, 1521 Budapest, Hungary
2Center for Computational Materials Science, TU Vienna, Getreidemarkt 9/134, A-1060 Vienna, Austria
3Instituto de Ciencia de Materiales de Madrid, Consejo Superior de Investigaciones Científicas, Cantoblanco, 28049 Madrid, Spain
4H. H. Wills Physics Laboratory, Bristol University, Royal Fort, Tyndall Avenue, Bristol BS8 1TL, United Kingdom

Received 18 November 2005; published 14 February 2006

We propose a new mechanism for surface-induced magnetic anisotropy to explain the thickness dependence of the Kondo resistivity of thin films of dilute magnetic alloys. The surface anisotropy energy, generated by spin-orbit coupling on the magnetic impurity itself, is an oscillating function of the distance d from the surface and decays as 1/d2. Numerical estimates based on simple models suggest that this mechanism, unlike its alternatives, gives rise to an effect of the desired order of magnitude.

© 2006 The American Physical Society

URL:
http://link.aps.org/doi/10.1103/PhysRevLett.96.067204
DOI:
10.1103/PhysRevLett.96.067204
PACS:
75.20.Hr, 75.30.Gw
 
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