THEORETICAL PREDICTIONS OF MAGNETIC INTERFACE ANISOTROPY IN (PD CO/PD)/X SUPERLATTICES/

We present first principles electronic structure calculations of the m agnetic interface anisotropy for several (1Pd/1Co/1Pd)/nX superlattice s with X=Pt, Pd, Ag, or Cu. The calculated anisotropies are compared t o those found in Co/X and (1Pt/1Co/1Pt)/nX superlattices. The predicte d anisotropies for monolayer spacers of Ag or Cu are similar in magnit ude to those computed for Co/Pd or Co/Pt multilayers. In the case of ( 1Pd/1Co/1Pd)/1Pt, the anisotropy is enhanced when compared to either C o/Pt or Co/Pd superlattices, though to a lesser extent than that compu ted for (1Pt/1Co/1Pt)/1Pd. Surprisingly, increasing the number of spac er layers to three, results in a suppression of the perpendicular anis otropy in (1Pd/1Co/1Pd)/3X and (1Pt/1Co/1Pt)/3Cu superlattices. This r esult is inconsistent with a near-neighbor Neel model, which would pre dict little sensitivity to the number of X layers. The Neel model has been shown to work quite well on average for many fee-based Co/Pt and Co/Pd multilayers. This suggests that the details of the superlattice electronic structure are important in these systems. (C) 1996 American Institute of Physics.