Magnetic properties of bimetallic Ni-Pd nanoclusters

We study the dependence of the magnetic properties of Ni-Pd nanoclusters (Ni cores coated by Pd atoms) on size and relative composition. We consider Ni-Pd clusters as having closed shell cubo-octahedral structure with an increasing Ni core size. The electronic and magnetic properties are calculated with a parametrized Hubbard Hamiltonian within the unrestricted Hartree-Fock approximation. We show that, depending on the relative composition, the Pd coating can give rise to an enhancement of the average magnetic moment of the Ni core