Quantum-well states and magnetocrystalline anisotropy in Co/Pd structures

Oscillations of magnetocrystalline anisotropy with the Pd overlayer thickness are found for (001) fcc $\mathrm{Pd}\mathrm{}\left(p\right)/\mathrm{Co}\mathrm{}\left(q\right)/\mathrm{Pd}\mathrm{}\left(p\right)\mathrm{}$ slabs within a realistic tight-binding model with spin-orbit coupling treated as a perturbation. The oscillations are examined in a simplified semianalytical model and are attributed to periodical appearance of pairs of majority-spin quantum-well states and pairs of minority-spin resonances at the Fermi level.