Magnetism of surfaces and interfaces

Abstract

Recent experimental advances in the study of surfaces have raised important questions about our fundamental understanding of these phenomena. One important consequence of this has been the development of theoretical/computational methods for accurately determining the electronic structure and properties of surfaces and interfaces. This talk reports on theoretical determinations of the magnetic properties of free surfaces [e.g., Ni(110)] and overlayers [e.g., Ni on Cu(001)] based on self-consistent spin polarized energy band determinations of the energy dispersion and spatial character of surface states. Particular attention is paid to surface state effects on surface spin polarization, magnetic moments, and exchange splittings. Detailed results of charge and spin densities and layer projected density of states are presented. Comparisons are made to relevant photo-emission and other experiments, the nonexistence of magnetically ’’dead’’ layers is described, and comparisons with earlier results1 on coherent modulated Cu/Ni structures are given.