Schwinger boson theory of anisotropic ferromagnetic ultrathin films

Ferromagnetic thin films with magnetic single-ion anisotropies are studied within the framework of Schwinger bosonization of a quantum Heisenberg model. Two alternative bosonizations are discussed. We show that qualitatively correct results are obtained even at the mean-field level of the theory, similar to Schwinger boson results for other magnetic systems. In particular, the Mermin-Wagner theorem is satisfied: a spontaneous magnetization at finite temperatures is not found if the ground state of the anisotropic system exhibits a continuous degeneracy. We calculate the magnetization and effective anisotropies as functions of exchange interaction, magnetic anisotropies, external magnetic field, and temperature for arbitrary values of the spin quantum number. Magnetic reorientation transitions and effective anisotropies are discussed. The results obtained by Schwinger boson mean-field theory are compared with the many-body Green's function technique.Comment: 14 pages, including 7 EPS figures, minor changes, final version as publishe

Higher-order and next-nearest-neighbor Néel anisotropies

The problem of higher-order Néel anisotropies is solved by exploiting the addition theorem for spherical functions. A key advantage of the present approach is the orthonormal character of the expansion of the magnetic energy that simplifies the formalism and makes possible the treatment of nonideal morphologies as well. Explicit expressions for second-, fourth-, and sixth-order anisotropies are obtained for ideal bulk of fcc and bcc symmetry as well as for (001), (110), and (111) surfaces with nearest-neighbor (NN) Néel interactions. The systematic examination of the pair model involves partition by species of inequivalent sites, interaction spheres, and orders in the multipole expansion. It enables us to treat also next-nearest-neighbor (NNN) pair interactions to the same high orders as the NN ones. The analysis sheds light onto the peculiar cases of bcc(100) and bcc(111) surfaces where one finds no symmetry breaking (no second-order contributions) with NN interactions only. With the extension to NNN’s, it is demonstrated that bcc(111) surfaces exhibit a particularly high symmetry and acquire no second-order anisotropy contributions from NNN interactions, whereas the latter induce a second-order symmetry breaking in the bcc(100) case