Covalent origin of adsorbate-induced demagnetization at ferromagnetic surfaces - art. no. 012413

First-principles density-functional theory calculations are presented for t he chemisorption of NO on Ni(110). These demonstrate a strong localization of the adsorbate-induced demagnetization at ferromagnetic surfaces, suggest ive of a covalent origin for this intriguing phenomenon. Comparisons with p revious work for CO adsorption on the same substrate reveal a number of sim ilarities, bur, additionally suggest that the initially unpaired electron o f the NO molecule results in a more pronounced demagnetization effect.