The effect of surface and interface on Neel transition temperature of low-dimensional antiferromagnetic materials

Abstract

Incorporating the bond order-length-strength (BOLS) notion with the Ising premise, we have modeled the size dependence of the Neel transition temperature (TN) of antiferromagnetic nanomaterials. Reproduction of the size trends reveals that surface atomic undercoordination induces bond contraction, and interfacial hetero-coordination induces bond nature alteration. Both surface and interface of nanomaterials modulate the TN by adjusting the atomic cohesive energy. The TN is related to the atomic cohesive/exchange energy that is lowered by the coordination number (CN) imperfection of the undercoordinated atoms near the surface and altered by the changed bond nature of epitaxial interface. A numerical match between predictions and measurements reveals that the TN of antiferromagnetic nanomaterials declines with reduced size and increases with both the strengthening of heterogeneous bond and the increase of the bond number.