Possible magnetism in small palladium clusters

Possible magnetism of small palladium clusters having cubic geometry has been studied using the Gaussian orbital basis and the local spin-density approximation. Extensive calculations have been done on ${\mathrm{Pd}}_{19}$ clusters with face-centered-cubic symmetry by varying atomic spacing parameters. Possible magnetism of the ${\mathrm{Pd}}_{15}$ cluster with body-centered-cubic symmetry has also been studied. Fixed moment calculations were done to find all possible metastable states of the cluster. In addition to a nonmagnetic state, the ${\mathrm{Pd}}_{19}$ cluster is found to have a magnetic state with a moment of $0.32{\mu }_B.$ The two states are very close in total energy but the magnetic state has slightly lower total energy. The ${\mathrm{Pd}}_{15}$ cluster is found to have only one magnetic state with a moment of $0.53{\mu }_B.$ From our calculations, we conclude that palladium clusters are very likely to be magnetic although the magnetic moment is very small.