Surface magnetism ferromagnetic films

Both in theory and experiments, surface magnetism is mostiy probed for surfaces of ultrathin ferromagnetic films (not for bulk materials). Therefore, it is not easy to separate surface effects from effects associated with reduced film thickness. Usually, the surface information is extracted from the thickness dependence of the quantity, which is analyzed. The surface anisotropy is a typical example for this approach (Section 7.6.1). Also, calculations are performed for slabs consisting of only a few atomic layers. Thus, it is important to remember that the surface magnetism quantities could be, in general, strongly dependent on the slab thickness. 

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