Magnetic structure of FeMn thin films on (001) FCC substrate

Abstract LEED experiments by Offi et al. (Phys. Rev. B 66 (2002) 064419) have recently revealed that the Fe50Mn50 alloy thin films keeps the FCC structure when growing on Cu (0 0 1) and on Co / Cu (0 0 1) . Stability of magnetic configurations of Fe50Mn50 alloy monolayer film is investigated using ab-initio calculations within density functional theory with gradient corrections. Fe induced magnetic moment of 2.85 μ B with Mn magnetic moment of 3.61 μ B aligned parallel with the ferromagnetic moment of the Co layer have been found as groundstate configuration with the Perdew–Wang functional in agreement with X-ray magnetic circular dichroism results.