We present results of the electronic and magnetic structure of Mn nanowires adsorbed on Ag(111) and Au(111) surfaces. For finite Mn nanowires on Ag(111) and Au(111) surfaces, our ab initio results show that the large difference between the spin-orbit splitting of these two surfaces leads to completely different magnetic configurations. The magnetic ordering for Mn nanowires adsorbed on Ag(111) is governed by the strong exchange interaction between Mn adatoms. For Mn nano-chains on Au(111), the competition between Heisenberg and Dzyaloshinskii-Moriya interactions leads to a complex magnetic structure of the clusters considered here. Among the more conspicuous results we note a spin-spiral helical type for the nanowire with seven atoms, and a complex magnetic configuration incommensurate with the substrate lattice for a double-sized Mn wire. The effect of the structural relaxation is also investigated, showing sensitivity of the exchange interactions to the bond distance to the substrate. We also demonstrate that small changes in the band filling of these Mn chains results in drastically different changes of the interatomic exchange. Finally, we show that dispersion of the electronic energy spectrum is possible even in nanostructures with bounded spatial extension.

• Received 5 May 2015
• Revised 30 December 2015

DOI:https://doi.org/10.1103/PhysRevB.93.014438