Magnetic properties of transition metal dichalcogenides-Fe/Ir(111) interfaces from first principles

In our density functional theory study we systematically explored how the interaction between magnetic and nonmagnetic transitionmetal dichalcogenide (TMD) monolayers and amagnetic Fe/Ir(111) electrode reciprocally modifies their electronic and magnetic properties. From an electronic point of view, all investigated semiconductor TMDs become metallic upon adsorption on the Fe/Ir(111) substrate related to a rather strong TMD-Fe/Ir(111) hybridization. On the other hand, from a magnetic point of view, the TMD-surface hybridization leads to a spin-imbalanced electronic structure of such hybrid systems with system-specific features. Additionally, the calculated exchange coupling constants for the Fe surface atoms evidenced a stronger magnetic interaction upon TMD adsorption as compared to the case of the clean surface. This observation indicates the presence of a magnetic hardening of the exchange coupling constants similarly to the case of molecular systems on magnetic surfaces, which emphasizes the generality of this adsorbate-induced effect on magnetic substrates.