Exchange-dominated surface spin waves in ferromagnetic and antiferromagnetic films

Theoretical results are presented for the localized surface spin waves in t hin magnetic films in the exchange-dominated regime. The method is based on a spin-wave operator and Green-function technique that utilizes special pr operties of tridiagonal and pentadiagonal matrices, and two applications ar e described here. One is to study the effects of finite film thickness in c oupling the modes localized near the two surfaces of an antiferromagnet wit h a simple cubic structure for the magnetic ions, and numerical examples ar e given for ultrathin films. The second application is to consider the surf ace spin waves in ferromagnetic films with body-centered cubic structure an d (111) surfaces. Its relevance to recent experimental data for localized m odes in epitaxial W/Ni/W films is discussed. (C) 2000 American Institute of Physics. [S0021-8979(00)26908-9].