The Behavior of Magnetic Properties in the Clusters of 4d Transition Metals

Abstract

The current focus of material science researchers is on the magnetic behavior of transition metal clusters due to its great hope for future technological applications. It is common knowledge that the 4d transition elements are not magnetic at their bulk size. However, studies indicate that their magnetic properties are strongly dependent on their cluster sizes. This study attempts to identify magnetic properties of 4d transition metal clusters. Using a tight-binding Friedel model for the density of d-electron states, we investigated the critical size for the magnetic-nonmagnetic transition of 4d transition-metal clusters. Approaching to the critical point, the density of states of the cluster near the Fermi level is higher than 1/J and the discrete energy levels form a quasi-continuous band. Where J is correlation integral. In order to determine the critical size, we considered a square shape band and fcc, bcc, icosahedral and cuboctahedral close-packed structures of the clusters. We also investigated this size dependent magnetic behavior using Heisenberg model. Taking some quantum mechanical approximations in to consideration, we determined magnetic behavior of the clusters. For practicality, we considered three clusters of transition metals (Ru, Rh and Pd) and the obtained results are in line with the results of previous studies.