Ab initio investigation of the anomalous Hall effect in thin films of transition metals

• Applicant: Professor Dr. Yuriy Mokrousov
• Subject Area: Theoretical Condensed Matter Physics
• Term: from 2008 to 2010
• Project identifier: Deutsche Forschungsgemeinschaft (DFG) - Project number 86791555

Only one year after his discovery of the “ordinary” Hall effect, Hall found that the Hall resistivityin ferromagnetic metals acquires an extra term which depends on the magnetization of the sample.The latter dependence is known as the anomalous Hall effect. Although a well-recognizedphenomenon since more than 100 years, there is still debate about its origins in various magneticmaterials. The Anomalous Hall Effect is intensively used for investigating surface magnetism,and its potential for investigating nanoscale magnetism, as well as for magnetic sensors andmemory devices applications, is being strongly considered. In 2006 a US physics team aroundProf. Ivo Souza at the University of California Berkeley, inspired by the new insight on Berryphase effects on Bloch electrons, has developed a new methodology to calculate the intrinsicAnomalous Hall conductivity from first-principles with extreme efficiency and minimal computationalcosts based on Wannier Functions formalism. The aim of this project is to investigate forthe first time from the first-principles the Anomalous Hall Effect in low-dimensional magnets,such as thin films of transition metals, by combining the expertise of Prof. Ivo Souza in AnomalousHall Effect and the group of Prof. Stefan Heinze in Hamburg University in ab initio descriptionof various aspects of magnetism on the nanoscale.

• DFG Programme: Research Fellowships
• International Connection: USA
• Host: Professor Ivo Souza