Magnetoelastic effects in ultrathin epitaxial Ni films: an ab initio study

Abstract The effect of the nonlinear magnetoelastic coupling on the magnetostrictive stress and the magnetic anisotropy of epitaxially grown ultrathin Ni films with large epitaxial strain is investigated by the ab initio density functional electron theory. The nonlinear coupling has a considerable influence on the magnetostrictive stress, in agreement with the experimental results from the optical bending beam technique, but a weaker influence on the stress-induced magnetic anisotropy. Estimates are given for the nonlinear magnetoelastic coupling coefficients m 1 γ ,2 and m 2 γ ,2 . The results are compared with those for Fe.