Magnetism and Magnetocrystalline Anisotropy of Co/ Fe(001) Surface: A First Principles Study

Recent theoretical calculations predicted that a magnetic thin film composed exclusively of 3d transition metals without heavy metals or rare earth metals can have strong perpendicular magneto crystalline anisotropy (MCA) in case 3d transition metals such as Fe, Co and Ni layers are arranged appropriately. While previous researches considered only Fe-terminated surfaces and found that Fe/MgO(001) and CoFeB/MgO(001) show strong perpendicular MCA, we investigate magnetism and MCA of Co/Fe(001) film where Co layer is positioned at the surface, by using the first principles calculation. Since the magnetic moments of Co and Fe are enhanced due to strong hybridization between Co and Fe d-bands, Co capped system also should be carefully considered. MCA of Co/Fe(001) is perpendicular to the film surface regardless of film thickness, which implies the surface termination as well as the interface play a crucial role in determining MCA of a system.