Interlayer magnetic coupling: Effect of interface roughness

The effect of structural interface imperfections on the interlayer magnetic coupling is studied theoretically by considering (i) a macroscopic model of roughness for possible fluctuations of spacer thickness, and (ii) a microscopic model of interdiffusion at ideal interfaces. For the Co/Cu/Co(001) system, we found a dramatic decrease of the amplitudes of the oscillations even for a small amount of interface imperfections, particularly strong for the short period oscillations,and thus indicating a possible source of discrepancy between ab initio calculations and experiment.