Properties of charge and magnetic impurities in a spin-polarized electron gas: A semiclassical approach

Analytical studies on the effect of charge and magnetic impurities in a spin-polarized electron gas (SPEG) are carried out using a Thomas–Fermi semiclassical approximation (TFSA). The susceptibility matrix of an SPEG is calculated within the TFSA framework. Charge, spin and mixed charge-spin screening lengths are defined and calculated for the bulk metals (Fe, Co and Ni). It is found that these screening lengths do not strongly depend on temperature in metallic samples. Based on the Ruderman–Kittel–Kasuya–Yoshida (RKKY) model, the magnetic response function is then used to calculate the dependence of the exchange coupling between two ferromagnetic layers. It is seen that the exchange coupling as a function of the magnetic/non-magnetic spacer thickness shows oscillatory behaviors for different orientations of the crystallographic planes in agreement with available experimental results.