Magnetic anisotropy of transition-metal thin films: Convergence properties

On the basis of extended recursion-scheme calculations and general analysis we show that the instabilities and oscillations of the magnetic anisotropy energy (MAE) curve result from numerical inaccuracies. We explain how to obtain quickly convergent results within the tight-binding recursion method. For an Fe(001) monolayer we find a negligible MAE, for a Co(111) monolayer the in-plane anisotropy is preferred whereas for a Co(111) bilayer the result is sensitive to the choice of parameters. Crystal-field effects are also discussed. © 1994 The American Physical Society.

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