First-principles calculation of the magnetic anisotropy energies of iron-based metallic multilayers

摘要

The magnetocrystalline anisotropy energies of X/Fe (X=Pd,Pt,Au,Ag) multilayers have been calculated from first principles within the local-spin-density approximation using the linear muffin-tin orbital (LMTO) method, including spin-orbit coupling. Although the calculated magnetostatic energies favour in-plane magnetization directions, the easy axes of Pd(2ML)/Fe(1ML), Au(2ML)/Fe(1ML) and Ag(2ML)/Fe(1ML) (ML: monolayer) multilayers are perpendicular to the film plane, because of the large electronic contribution to the perpendicular anisotropy. The calculated anisotropy energies of Pd/Fe multilayers decrease with increasing Fe layer thickness, which is in good agreement with experiment.