Spin waves in Heisenberg antiferromagnetic films with (001), (011), and (111) surfaces

A theory is presented for the effect of surface orientation on the spectra of localized surface spin waves in antiferromagnetic films. The calculation s apply to the exchange-dominated regime and exploit properties of banded m atrices to find analytic expressions for the spin-wave frequencies. Results are presented for films with a simple-cubic structure for (001), (011), an d (111) orientations of the surface planes. The spin-wave characteristics a re found to be quite distinct in the three cases. (C) 2001 Elsevier Science B.V. All lights reserved.