Magnetic Layer Thickness Dependence of the Interlayer Exchange Coupling

Abstract

Recent progress in the research on interlayer exchange coupling, focusing on the effect of the magnetic layer, is reviewed. Several theoretical works have shown that the exchange coupling does not just involve an interaction localized at the interfaces, but the electronic properties of the sandwich as a whole. The important prediction that the strength of the exchange coupling should oscillate as a function of the magnetic layer thickness has been confirmed recently for the Co/Cu(100) and the Fe/Cr(100) system. The oscillation periods are strongly believed to be related to wave vectors that span extremal parts of the spin-resolved Fermi surfaces of the ferromagnets.

Exchange Coupling and Magnetization Profiles of Binary and Ternary Magnetic Multilayers

“…double-wedge techniques [6], we have extended our. ab-initio calculations to complex binary and ternary systems with *Corresponding author (281) up to 20 non-equivalent layers.…”

“…To cope with the rapidly extending experimental possibilities to study ternary and even more complex systems by using e.g. double-wedge techniques, [6], we have extended our ab-initio calculations to complex binary and ternary systems with up to 20 non-equivalent layers. Such ab-initio calculations have already been used successfully by various groups, e.g.…”

Oscillatory thickness dependence of magnetic moments and interface-induced changes of the exchange coupling in Co/Cu and CoNi/Cu multilayers

“…The role of different interface atoms has been studied in detail first by Parkin [11] who has shown experimentally that the GMR depends critically on the contact interface monolayer. More recent systematic studies of [9,10,12] suggest that this applies also to the behaviour of J as far as its amplitudes and phases are concerned. According to [9,10], the exchange coupling extrema of Co/Cu fcc-(001) superlattices get systematicly shifted when the contact interface Co monolayer is replaced by either Ni 0.5 Co 0.5 or Ni monolayers.…”

Phase Shifts in the Oscillatory Interlayer Exchange Coupling across Cu Layers

“…[2]]. If applied to freeelectron-like electronic structures, phase shifts disappear in the limit of large FM and spacer thicknesses [22]. Non Fig.…”