ABSTRACT
Magnetic thin films are of crucial technological importance. This is also an area of strong development, which is heavily linked to the numerous applications and the potential for creating model systems for the study of specific physical effects. One particular area of research related to thin magnetic films is the surface modification of the local anisotropy, which is related to the reduced coordination of the atoms at the outermost atomic layer. Indeed, when the film thickness is below, say the exchange length, people can expect strongly thickness-dependent properties, such as a paramagnetic–ferromagnetic phase transitions, which will also be temperature-dependent. The transport of the charge of the electron is at the root of conventional electronics and is manipulated via the application of electric fields, while the spin of the electron is ignored. The exchange coupling between two ferromagnetic layers via an intermediate metallic and nonmagnetic layer displays an oscillatory dependence as a function of the thickness of the intervening film.
