Anisotropic exchange

Authors

Ralph Skomski, University of Nebraska-LincolnFollow
Arti Kashyap, University of Nebraska-LincolnFollow
Jian Zhou, University of Nebraska - Lincoln
David J. Sellmyer, University of Nebraska-LincolnFollow

Date of this Version

5-15-2005

Comments

Published by American Institute of Physics. J. Applied Physics 10B302 (2005). ©2005 American Institute of Physics. Permission to use. http://jap.aip.org/jap/.

Abstract

The origin and physical nature anisotropic exchange interactions is investigated. Emphasis is on nonrelativistic exchange anisotropies, as encountered, for example, in intermetallics with layered crystal structures. The summation of site-resolved exchange interactions is analyzed, and it is shown that Ruderman–Kittel-type long-range exchange yield converging exchange-stiffness expressions down to atomic length scales. In general, the resulting exchange stiffness is anisotropic, even if the interaction is mediated by an isotropic free electron gas. The determination of the mean-field Curie temperature from pair-exchange interactions requires the diagonalization of an interaction matrix, as opposed to simple site averaging.