<i>Ab initio</i>calculations of the exchange coupling of Fe and Co monolayers in Cu

Abstract

A Korringa-Kohn-Rostoker Green's function method for planar perturbations and a frozen potential method are used to evaluate the interaction energies of Fe and Co monolayers in Cu separated by up to 23 spacer layers. For the [100] orientation a phase shift of \ensuremath{\pi} is obtained between the Fe and Co oscillations and the three antiferromagnetic peaks observed experimentally are well described. For [110] an interesting beat effect is obtained leading to very different results for the Fe and Co layers.