Surface effects in the ferromagnet spin-1/2 Ising model of an alternating magnetic superlattice

The critical behavior of a semi-infinite alternating magnetic superlattice is examined within the effective field theory with a probability distributi on technique that accounts for the single site spin correlation. For a spin -1/2 Ising model of an alternating magnetic superlattice with arbitrary num ber of magnetic layers in a unit cell, we obtain the general formalism of t he transition critical temperature derivation. The transition temperature i s calculated as function of the inter- and infra-layer exchange constants. The effects of surface modification on finite superlattices are also studie d. (C) 2001 Elsevier Science B.V. All rights reserved.