Hostname: page-component-f554764f5-sl7kg Total loading time: 0 Render date: 2025-04-16T11:34:48.353Z Has data issue: false hasContentIssue false
  • English
  • Français

Long and Short Range Oscillatory Exchange Coupling in Fe/Cu and Co/Cu Magnetic Multilayers

Published online by Cambridge University Press:  26 February 2011

F. Herman ,
J. Sticht  and
M. Van Schilfgaarde
F. Herman
Affiliation:
IBM Almaden Research Center San Jose, CA 95120-6099, USA
J. Sticht
Affiliation:
Technische Hochschule, D-6100 Darmstadt, Germany
M. Van Schilfgaarde
Affiliation:
SRI International, Menlo Park, CA 94025, USA
Get access

Abstract

By carrying out accurate first-principles superlattice calculations, we determined the exchange coupling in bcc Fe/Cu and fcc Co/Cu multilayers as a function of the Cu spacer thickness. The fact that we can obtain long-range oscillatory coupling directly from first principles suggests that our theoretical model includes the underlying physical mechanism, and that such coupling is indeed a band structure effect. The exchange coupling depends on the interfacial orientation as well as on the Cu spacer thickness. In bcc [001] Fe/Cu, fcc [001] Co/Cu, and fcc [110] Co/Cu, the coupling has both long and short-range oscillatory components, while in fcc [111] Co/Cu, the long-range component dominates. Using a simplified model for the Fermi surface of the Cu spacer, we can relate the short-range oscillations to electronic transitions across the Fermi sphere, and the long-range oscillations to electronic transitions between spheres in adjacent zones in extended k-space, i.e., to interzonal transitions.

Type
Research Article
Information
MRS Online Proceedings Library (OPL) , Volume 231: Symposium S – Magnetic Surfaces, Thin Films and Multilayers , 1991 , 195
Copyright
Copyright © Materials Research Society 1992

Access options

Get access to the full version of this content by using one of the access options below. (Log in options will check for institutional or personal access. Content may require purchase if you do not have access.)

Article purchase

Temporarily unavailable

References

[1] Parkin, S. S. P., More, N., and Roche, K. P., Phys. Rev. Lett. 64, 2304 (1990). For more recent results for a large number of systems and extensive references to work by others, see S. S. P. Parkin, Phys. Rev. Lett., to be published.Google Scholar
[2] Williams, A. R., Kuebler, J., and Gelatt, C. D. Jr, Phys. Rev. B 19, 6094 (1979).Google Scholar
[3] Herman, F., Sticht, J., and Schilfgaarde, M. Van, J. Appl. Phys. 69, 4783 (1991).Google Scholar
[4] Heinrich, B. et al. , Phys. Rev. Lett. 64, 673 (1990).CrossRefGoogle Scholar
[5] Parkin, S. S. P., Bhadra, R., and Roche, K. P., Phys. Rev. Lett. 66, 2152 (1991).Google Scholar
[6] Herman, F., Sticht, J., and Schilfgaarde, M. Van, to be published.Google Scholar
[7] Cullen, J. R., Callen, E., and Luther, A. H., J. Appl. Phys. 39, 1105 (1968); C. Kittel, Solid State Phys. 22, 1 (1968), Appendix C.Google Scholar
[8] Coqblin, B., The Electronic Structure of Rare-Earth Metals and Alloys: the Magnetic Heavy Rare-Earths, (Academic Press, London, 1977).Google Scholar
[9] Yafet, Y., Kwo, J., Hong, M., Majkrzak, C. F., and O'Brien, T., J. Appl. Phys. 63, 3453 (1988).Google Scholar
[10] Shoenberg, D., Magnetic Oscillations in Metals, (Cambridge Univ. Press, 1984).Google Scholar
[11] Roth, L. M., Zeiger, H. J., and Kaplan, T. A., Phys. Rev. 149, 519 (1966).CrossRefGoogle Scholar
[12] Edwards, D. M., Mathon, J., Muniz, R. B., and Phan, M. S., J. Magn. Magn. Mater., 93, 85 (1991); Phys. Rev. Lett. 67, 493 (1991).CrossRefGoogle Scholar
[13] Wang, Y., Levy, P. M., and Fry, J. L., Phys. Rev. Lett. 65, 2732 (1990); J. L. Fry, E. C. Ethridge, P. M. Levy, and Y. Wang, J. Appl. Phys. 69, 4780 (1991). In bcc Fe/Cr these authors find that the short-range oscillations are due to transitions within the reduced zone between nested Fermi surface segments. These transitions are also responsible for the incommensurate spin density waves in bulk Cr.Google Scholar
[14] Coehoorn, R., submitted to Phys. Rev. B.Google Scholar
[15] Chappert, C. and Renard, J. P., Europhys. Lett. 15, 553 (1991).Google Scholar
[16] Deaven, D. M., Rokhsar, D., and Johnson, M., Phys. Rev. B 44, 5977 (1991).Google Scholar
[17] Bruno, P. and Chappert, C., Phys. Rev. Lett. 67, 1602 (1991).Google Scholar
[18] These papers describe long-range oscillatory coupling as an aliasing phenomenon produced by sampling very shod-range oscillations at the uniformly spaced atomic planes of the multilayer. These latter oscillations are presumably related to interzonal transitions between closely spaced extremal Fermi surface segments.Google Scholar
[19] This analogy must be treated with caution, however. From the standpoint of RKKY perturbation theory, the transitions giving rise to additional oscillations in Ref. 7 are intervalley (intrazonal) transitions, while in multilayers they are ultimately transitions between adjacent zones in the extended zone scheme of the spacer, i.e., interzonal transitions involving reciprocal lattice vectors.Google Scholar
[20] Herman, F. and Schrieffer, J. R., to be published.Google Scholar
[21] Marks, R. F. et al. , in Heteroepitaxy of Dissimilar Materials, eds. Farrow, R. F. C., Harbison, J. P., Peercy, P. S., and Zangwill, A. (MRS, Pittsburgh, 1991), Vol. 221 of the MRS Symposium Proceedings Series.Google Scholar
[22] Jonge, W. J. M. de et al. , in Magnetic Thin Films, Multilayers, and Surfaces, ed. Parkin, S. S. P. (MRS, Pittsburgh, 1991), Vol. 231 of the MRS Symposium Proceedings Series.Google Scholar
[23] Malozemoff, A. P., Phys. Rev. B 35, 3679 (1987).Google Scholar