Exchange interaction between magnetic impurities on surfaces of CuxPd1−x and CuxAu1−x random substitutional alloys

We present fully relativistic first principles calculations of the exchange interactions between magnetic impurities deposited on the (1 1 1) surfaces of CuxPd1−x and CuxAu1−x random substitutional alloys, described using the coherent potential approximation. We show that as with pure surfaces of Cu and Au, where Shockley-type surface states mediate an RKKY-type interaction, a surface state and its dispersion can be obtained from studying the Bloch spectral function. In the second part of the paper we show how the details of the interaction are determined by the properties and dispersion of the surface states of the host material. We find an extra exponential decay in the range of the interactions compared to the 1/R2 decay on surfaces of pure metals. The similar topology of the Fermi surface of Cu and Au allows us to scale the spin–orbit coupling and to study the Bychkov–Rashba splitting. Alternatively, the entirely different topology of the Cu and Pd Fermi surfaces allows us to study changes in the surface-state dispersion of the RKKY interaction between surface impurities. (paper)