Voltage-controlled surface magnetization of itinerant ferromagnet Ni1-x Cux

We argue that surface magnetization of a metallic ferromagnet can be turned on and off isothermally by an applied voltage. For this, the material's electron subsystem must be close enough to the boundary between paramagnetic and ferromagnetic regions on the electron density scale. For the 3d series, the boundary is between Ni and Cu, which makes their alloy a primary candidate. Using Ginzburg-Landau functional, which we build from Ni1-x Cux empirical properties, ab-initio parameters of Ni and Cu, and orbital-free LSDA, we show that the proposed effect is experimentally observable.