Magnetic properties of free-standing finite linear Co chains

The ground state magnetic properties of Co_N linear atomic chains with 1 ≤ N ≤ 10 are studied within density functional theory using the generalized gradient approximation . A linear scaling between the binding energy per atom and the inverse of the number of atoms in the chain is found. For the optimized geometries, our results show a dimerization effect for chains of few atoms but for bigger ones the phenomena disappear in the center but remains at the ends due to finite size effects. The spin moment, the orbital moment and the magnetic anisotropy energy were investigated. For large chains, the orbital and spin moments have a tendency to become uniform. Enhanced spin and orbital moments were found due to the reduced coordination number compared to the cobalt in bulk. The cobalt chain of five atoms has the biggest magnetic anisotropy energy with an outstanding 8 meV, suggesting that it could have applications in ultrahigh density magnetic memories and hard disk.