First-principle calculations of the exchange interaction characteristics for multilayer magnetic structures

Abstract

Magnetic multilayer structures which consist of the ferromagnetic layers separated by nonmagnetic layers with giant magnetoresistance (GMR) are widely used as spintronic devices and read heads of hard disks. In this work magnetic and exchange interaction characteristics of Co/Cu/Co, Ni/Cu/Ni and Fe/Cr/Fe multilayer structures are studied by using VASP software package within the Projector Augmented Wave (PAW) method with generalized-gradient approximation (GGA PBE).The finite temperature magnetism of these structures was studied by Monte-Carlo simulations with the use of the exchange interaction parameters obtained from the ab initio results.