Theoretical study of magnetic and magneto-optical properties of Fe-based transition-metal alloys

Abstract

Relativistic influences on the magnetic properties of transition-metal alloys manifest themselves for example by the occurrence of magnetocrystalline anisotropy, orbital contributions to the magnetic moment, and hyperfine fields. Among these effects, the magneto-optical Kerr effect is receiving much interest recently because of its application in the readout process of magneto-optical storage devices. We have studied the electronic structure of Fe-based transition metals by means of the spin-polarized version of the relativistic linear muffin-tin orbital method of band-structure calculation. By this way the mentioned consequences of relativistic effects, primarily the spin-orbit coupling, could be investigated without relying on the use of perturbational methods. Results for alloy systems, which were assumed to be of possible technical interest, are presented and discussed in comparison with experimental data as far as available.