Answer to Question #111280 in Atomic and Nuclear Physics for Alena

Question

Farid El Gabaly is investigating the question what patterns do magnetic atoms form in very small pieces of metal? what evidence did he use to help answer his question?

Answer 1

Farid El Gabaly and his colleagues used spin-polarized electron beam to study the layers of cobalt growing on a ruthenium surface. They created uniform layers of different thickness from one to three cobalt atoms thick. The researchers created a map of magnetization and here is what they found: the layers on odd thickness (one and three atoms) were magnetized parallel to the surface, while the two atoms-thick layer was magnetized perpendicularly to the surface. Similar pattern was discovered in iron.