Evolution of the Fe-Co magnetism and magnetic proximity effects in alternate Fe/Co monolayers on nonmagnetic Cu3Au(001)

Magnetic heterostructures with ferromagnetic/nonmagmetic interfaces are very interesting materials due to the possibility to switch the magnetization, to control the induced magnetic moment, and also due to interfacial effects. The tuning of the spin-orbit coupling in magnetic materials allows engineering new spintronic devices. Using density functional theory, the induced local magnetic moments in copper and gold surface atoms of Cu3Au(001) due to the deposited alternate magnetic Fe and Co monolayers were studied. To observe the tuning mechanism, the spin density of the FeCo/Cu3Au(001) as a function of the number of deposited magnetic monolayers was extensively investigated. The Fe/Co deposition induces a hybridization between electronic states of the magnetic and nonmagnetic interface atoms, generating a broadening in d bands of the deposited material, engineering the magnetic moments of the interface atoms. This observed hybridization elucidates the charge variation in the interface atoms for stacking sequences starting with Fe or with Co as the first magnetic layer in direct contact with the Cu3Au(001) substrate. By performing the spin-charge density calculations, we demonstrated that this magnetic induction occurs only for the nonmagnetic Cu-Au atoms at the Cu3Au(001) surface.

Automated summary

Magnetic heterostructures with ferromagnetic/nonmagnetic interfaces are of great research and application value, and can be used to design new spintronic devices by tuning the spin-orbit coupling.