Spin Anisotropy of Ferromagnetic Films

Abstract

We calculate the spin anisotropy of ferromagnetic monolayers of Fe, Ni, and V. We find that the easy direction of magnetization is perpendicular to the plane of the monolayer for Fe and V, but in the plane for Ni. The result for Fe explains why spin splitting but no spin polarization is observed in recent photoemission experiments on Fe overlayers.