Prediction of a surface magnetic moment in alpha-uranium

Original · EN

Recently, there has been an increased interest in first-principles calculations of the actinides as well as in finding the new materials which display surface magnetism. We predict the existence of a magnetic moment on the uranium (001) surface by performing density functional calculations for a slab geometry in the generalized gradient and local spin density approximations with included spin orbit coupling. The ferromagnetic phase is energetically favored for all geometries. The calculated total magnetic moment, 0.65μB, is stable on films of different thickness and it should be observable experimentally.