Atomic investigation of Fe-Cu magnetic thin films by molecular dynamics simulation

Abstract

The deposition behavior of an Fe-Cu magnetic metallic multilayer system was investigated at the atomic level using molecular dynamics simulation. It was found that a mixture confined to a single atomic layer at the Cu(001) surface was formed at room temperature. The Fc-Cu system shows mixing characteristics such as layer coverage function and mixing length, that are significantly different from those of the Fe-Al metallic system. The different intermixing behavior could be successfully explained in terms of cohesive energy and atomic size mismatch.