Magnetic anisotropies of thin fcc Fe-layers on Cu(100)

Abstract

We present ab-initio calculations of the spin-structures and the magnetic anisotropies of face-centred-cubic iron films on Cu(100) substrates with the thickness varying between one and six monolayers. The calculations are based on a self-consistent tight-binding linear-muffin-tin orbital method with variable local spin quantization axes. Our calculations show that for films with more than three monolayers, the magnetic polarizations of the films acquires an antiferromagnetic component, for films with more than four monolayers metastable magnetic configurations appear. For the fcc Fe monolayers we predict a perpendicular anisotropy on Cu(100) and an in-plane anisotropy on Cu(111). For the thicker layers on Cu(100) we find a decreasing perpendicular anisotropy for up to six monolayers, we expect a transition to in-plane anisotropy for 8 to 10 monolayers.