Two-dimensional Mn-Co surface alloy on Co(001)

Surface alloy formation of Mn on Co(001) was detected by low-energy electro n diffraction and in situ magneto-optic Kerr effect experiments. Here we di scuss the electronic and magnetic properties of an equivalent Mn monolayer (ML) at the surface of Co(001) using the tight-binding linear muffin-tin or bitals method. Magnetic configurations and stability of ordered 2D Mn-Co al loy 2 ML thick vs Mn/Co(001) and Co/Mn/Co(001) have been considered. Multip le magnetic configurations have been always obtained but a comparison betwe en the ground states display an instability of the perfect Mn ML on Co(001) . Total energy differences are considerably reduced in the case of spin-pol arization calculations as compared with the non-magnetic one. (C) 1000 Else vier Science B.V. All rights reserved.