Magnetic behaviour of selected geometries of Pd clusters: Icosahedral versus fcc structures

We study the magnetic properties of free-standing Pd clusters of some selected sizes with different structures which are obtained as the most stable ones using the embedded atom method from an uniform relaxation of different geometrical configurations. The spin-polarized electronic structure and related magnetic properties of those optimized geometries were calculated by solving self-consistently a spd tight-binding Hamiltonian. The magnetic moments obtained in our calculations present an step-like dependence as a function of the exchange parameter in the case of small cluster size and a more complex dependence for larger cluster sizes. We discuss the results in comparison with previous calculations for fcc Pd clusters and with recent experimental findings. © 2004 Published by Elsevier B.V.

Electronic properties; Magnetic nanostructures; Tight-binding methods; Transition-metal clusters Cluster analysis; Electronic properties; Electronic structure; Geometry; Magnetic moments; Magnetic properties; Molecular dynamics; Transition metals; Embedded-atom method; Exchange parameters; Geometrical configurations; Magnetic nanostructures; Optimized geometries; Tight binding methods; Tight-binding Hamiltonians; Transition-metal clusters; Palladium; palladium; article; calculation; chemical structure; electronics; geometry; magnetism; nanoparticle

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