Magnetic and electronic structure of Fe/Cu bilayers

The magnetic and electronic structure of fee Fe/Cu bilayers were analyzed b y means of the linear muffin-tin orbital (LMTO) method. We carried out ferr omagnetic (FM) and non-magnetic (NM) calculations for several lattice spaci ngs in order to obtain the total energy as a function of the volume. The FM state is energetically favoured over NM state by 5.5 mRy per atom. The ana lyses of the density of states gives a good description of the magnetic pro perties of these bilayers. The results show the collapse of the magnetism f or certain critical lattice spacing, indicating the existence of more than one magnetic phase. (C) 1999 Elsevier Science S.A. All rights reserved.