Regensburg 2000 – scientific programme

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AM: Magnetismus

AM 15: Oberflächenmagnetismus: Struktur und Wachstum, Anisotropie

AM 15.8: Talk

Wednesday, March 29, 2000, 15:45–16:00, H22

Investigation of chemical trends of the magnetocrystalline anisotropy for monolayers — •X. Nie and S. Blügel — Institut für Festkörperforschung, Forschungszentrum Jülich, D-52425 Jülich

The magnetocrystalline anisotropy energies for in-plane and out-of-plane magnetization directions for 3d, 4d, and 5d magnetic monolayers as free-standing, unsupported monolayers and for monolayers on various substrates (i.e. Cu(100), Ag(100), Pd(100)) were determined by self-consistent calculations on the basis of the density functional theory using the film and bulk-FLAPW code FLEUR. In order to monitor the chemical trend of the magnetocrystalline anisotropy, orbital-, and spin moment, the nuclear number Z of the chemical element was varied from the beginning to the end of the transition-metal series in steps of Δ Z=0.1∼ 0.2. In opposite to the simple band filling arguments on the chemical trends, by this approach, the change of the electronic structure due to the change of the potential is included. Conclusions to alloyed monolayers will be drawn. It is shown that the magnetic anisotropy and the anisotropy of the orbital moment is a rapidly oscillating function between in-plane and out-of-plane easy axis across the transition-metal series. The anisotropy energy decreases rapidly from the end of the transition-metal series to the beginning. Unsupported monolayers at the Cu(100) and Ag(100) lattice constant show the same trend. Unsupported monolayers and monolayers on Cu(100) and Ag(100) show a very similar trend, but deviations are found for the Pd substrate. The trend of the anisotropy energy is explained on the basis of the bandstructure. The relation between the anisotropy energy and the orbital moment is discussed.