• Journal of the Korean Magnetics Society
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• v.24 no.2
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• pp.35-40
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• 2014

We investigate magnetism and magnetocrystalline anisotropy of CoFe thin films, using VASP code in GGA. In this study Co-terminated and Fe-terminated 5-layer CoFe thin films are employed. The Co-terminated CoFe thin film shows two total energy minima at 2-dimensional lattice constants of $2.45{\AA}$ and $2.76{\AA}$. The film of $2.45{\AA}$ has fcc-like structure and the film of $2.76{\AA}$ has bcc-like structure similarly to a bulk CoFe alloy. And the fcc-like film is more stable by the energy difference of about 160 meV compared to the bcc-like film. The Fe-terminated CoFe film shows very complicated behaviour of total energy which is suspected to be closely related to its complex magnetic structure. The Co-terminated CoFe film of $2.76{\AA}$ shows perpendicular magnetocrystalline anisotropy (MCA), while the film of 2.45 does parallel MCA. The Fe-terminated CoFe film also exhibits similar MCA behaviour.