Spin structure of rare-earth metal films

本项目旨在研究稀土金属薄膜表面的磁性结构，特别关注其与结构和电子性质的关系。为此，将在W(110)和Y(0001)Butler层上外延生长薄膜，并用自旋极化扫描隧道显微镜进行表征。尽管稀土金属被用于无数的应用中，但它们的自旋结构只对Dy、Nd元素和--为本项目做准备--的Gd元素进行了显微成像。在这个项目中，我们将研究薄膜厚度、温度和外场对磁畴结构的影响。因此，我们将首先关注重稀土元素(Tb、Dy、Ho、Er和Tm)。仅在第二阶段，我们还将研究轻稀土金属Eu、Sm和Ce的薄膜，如果可能的话，这些薄膜的数据很少。我们预计，这项研究的结果将显著改善我们对稀土元素的磁性的理解，特别是对其薄膜的理解，但我们的理解非常有限。

This project aims for the investigation of the magnetic structure of surfaces of thin rare-earth metal films, with a special focus on its correlation with structural and electronic properties. Towards this purpose the films will be epitaxially grown on W(110) and Y(0001) butler layers and characterized by spin-polarized scanning tunneling microscopy. Although rare-earth metals are used in countless applications, their spin structure has been imaged microscopically only for the elements Dy, Nd, and --in preparation towards this project-- Gd. In this project we will study the magnetic domain structure in dependence of the film thickness, the temperature, and the external field. Hereby, we will initially focus on heavy rare-earth elements (Tb, Dy, Ho, Er and Tm). Only in the second phase we will also investigate films of the light rare-earth metals Eu, Sm, and –if possible– Ce, for which very few data exist. We expect that the results of this study will significantly improve our yet very limited understanding of magnetism in the rare-earth elements, especially of their thin films.