Magnetic Interactions

Hawk alone in wait, hunkered down to
grasp with talons bare, talons barbed,
tight within its perch, in branch embed
and feeling naught from wind and
squall, none to break its steadfast
gaze upon its prey; a sparkling shoal.
Scale and movement mirrored, facing all
towards the stream, its flow and whirl
portrayed in their gently twisting dance.

This chapter gives an overview of some of the more important magnetic interactions that occur within the thin film systems studied in this thesis. Of particular importance is the magnetic anisotropy of a system, as this can change considerably when going from bulk to thin film and multilayer systems. The RKKY interaction can also greatly influence the magnetic ordering in some systems as distances between magnetic entities are varied.