Twining effects in the magnetism of small Pd clusters

We report a theoretical study of the magnetic behavior of symmetrical twined PdN (N≤220) clusters. The twined PdN particles were built from two equal PdM seed-clusters with fcc-like structure for M=38, 55, 79 and 116. The optimized geometrical structures of PdN (with N<2M) were obtained from an uniform relaxation of the fcc-like twined configurations using the embedded atom method (EAM). The spin-polarized electronic structure and related magnetic properties of those optimized geometries were calculated by solving self-consistently a spd tight-binding Hamiltonian. We observe that, in some cases the twining process may induce and/or enhance the magnetic moment of the clusters even in the case when the seed-clusters are non-magnetic. Our results also suggest a strong dependence on the twining orientation, providing further support to the influence of symmetry effects on the magnetic properties of finite transition-metal systems. We discuss our results in comparison with some recent experimental observations for Pd nanoparticles [Shinohara et al., Phys. Rev. Lett. 91 (2003) 197201. [14]; Sampedro et al., Phys. Rev. Lett. 91 (2003) 237203. [13]].