1988/04/15 by C. Rau, Luchang Jin, Marc Robert · 1 citation
Physics and Astronomy · Chemistry · #Physics of Superconductivity and Magnetism #Magnetic properties of thin films #Advanced Chemical Physics Studies #Curie temperature #Terbium #Ferromagnetism #Condensed matter physics #Anisotropy #Materials science #Electron #Curie #Chemistry #Ion #Physics #Optics #Nuclear physics
paper · doi:10.1063/1.340679
openalex publication_date 1988/04/15 · openalex created_date 2025/10/10 · openalex updated_date 2026/06/26
The magnetic order at surfaces of the 4f rare-earth metal terbium is investigated using electron capture spectroscopy (ECS), which probes the electron spin polarization (ESP) of the topmost surface layer. In ECS, the capture of spin-polarized electrons during grazing-angle ion-surface interaction is used to determine the ESP due to long- and short-ranged surface magnetic order. It is found that long-ranged ferromagnetic order exists far above the bulk Curie temperature, measured to be TCb =220 K. At 140 K, the long-ranged ESP amounts to 24%. With increasing temperature, the ESP first decreases montonically up to the bulk Néel temperature TNb=228 K, then exhibits a pronounced maximum at T=238 K, and ultimately vanishes at the surface Curie temperature TCs =248 K. These striking results on enhanced magnetic order at Tb surfaces suggest the presence of very large surface anisotropies.