Magnetism and electronic structure of bimetallic superlattices: Cr/Fe

Abstract The electronic and magnetic properties of Cr/Fe(110) coherent modulated superlattices (CMS) with various layer thicknesses were studied using the local spin density linear muffin-tin orbital method. In agreement with experiment, we find that the magnetic moments of the Fe layers are not significantly affected by the Cr layers and to have almost the same magnitude as in bulk bcc Fe, even in the case of an Fe monolayer in the Cr/Fe(110) CMS. Only a small moment (≤0.4μ B ) is found for the Cr layers aligned antiparallel to the n.n. Fe moments. The Cr moment alignment is determined by a delicate balance between the different magnetic interactions (Fe-Fe, Fe-Cr and Cr-Cr); the Cr magnetic moment always prefers to align antiparallel to the n.n. Fe and Cr moments.