Europhys. Lett., 49 (2), p. 217 (2000)


    Calculated interlayer magnetic couplings in Fe/Cr superlattices

C. Cornea and D. Stoeffler

Institut de Physique et de Chimie des Matériaux de Strasbourg (UMR 7504
du CNRS)
Groupe d'Etudes des Matériaux Métalliques
23, rue du Loess, F-67037 Strasbourg Cedex, France

PACS :
71.20.Be - Transition metals and alloys
75.70.-i - Magnetic films and multilayers
75.70.Cn - Interfacial magnetic properties (multilayers, magnetic
quantum wells, superlattices, magnetic heterostructures)


      Abstract:

We present recent calculations of the non-collinear magnetic structure
in Fe/Cr superlattices having perfectly flat or "rough" interfaces. The
self-consistent magnetic-moments maps and the interlayer couplings are
obtained from tight binding band structure calculations allowing to
study large systems. We show that the bilinear-biquadratic expression
for the coupling energy fits nicely the calculated values. We model
"rough" interfaces by considering atomic steps in the Cr layers and we
show that a 90-degree magnetic interlayer arrangement occurs even if it
is not allowed by minimising the coupling energy.

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