Interface magnetism in ultrathin Fe/W(110) films from first principles

An ab initio study of the magnetic properties of Fe ultrathin films on-top of a W(110) substrate shows that for one Fe layer the magnetization axis is in-plane. I;or an additional layer of Fe, the magnetosurface and magnetoelastic anisotropies favor a magnetization axis perpendicular to the substrate, but the total energy including the shape anisotropy is minimal for the spin axis in-plane. In the case of the trilayer film all anisotropies favor an in-plane magnetization axis. The spin magnetic moment of the first Fe atomic layer is close to the bulk value while that of the second and third Fe atomic layers are considerably increased. The W atoms at the interface are weakly antiferromagnetically coupled to Fe. The orbital magnetic moment anisotropy of all the atoms is shown to be directly related to the calculated x-ray magnetic circular dichroism anisotropy.