Structural, Magnetic, and Magneto-Optical Properties of Fe/Cu Superlattices

Abstract

The magnetic and magneto-optical properties of face-centered cubic (fcc)-Fe/nCu (001) superlattices are studied and compared with the fcc-Fe bulk structure. This is done using the method of all electron linearized augmented wave planes (FP L APW) in the local spin density functional approximation (DFT), implemented in the WIEN2k code, with the local spin density approximation for the exchange and correlation. As far as the magnetic properties are concerned, a significant increase of the magnetic moment of the iron atoms and the magnetic anisotropy energy (MAE) of the system is observed with increasing copper layers. A slight polarization occurs, with emergence of a small magnetic moment of copper atoms, due to the hybridization between the iron and copper orbitals. An antiferromagnetic phase of the system is observed, caused by the d states. The contraction film’s structure explains the continuous decay of the magnetic moment; therefore, the magneto-optical Kerr effect response could be investigated through the optical conductivity. In spite of their great magnetic moment, Kerr’s spectra are explained in terms of optical transitions and the MAE of the systems is calculated.