Magnetic correlations beyond the Heisenberg model in an Fe monolayer on Rh(0 0 1).

Motivated by a recent experimental observation of a complex magnetic structure (Takada et al 2013 J. Magn. Magn. Mater. 329 95) we present a theoretical study of the magnetic structure of an Fe monolayer deposited on Rh(0 0 1). We use a classical spin Hamiltonian with parameters obtained from ab initio calculations and go beyond the usual anisotropic Heisenberg model by including isotropic biquadratic interactions. Zero-temperature Landau–Lifshitz–Gilbert spin dynamics simulations lead to a complex collinear spin configuration that, however, contradicts experimental findings. We thus conclude that higher order multi-spin interactions are likely needed to account for the magnetic ordering of the system.