Model calculations of the magnetic anisotropy in 3d transition metals

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Abstract
A simple model of the magnetic anisotropy in 3d transition metals is based on a 10×10 Hamiltonian describing all d states. We include spin‐orbit interaction, a cubic crystal field, an effective Weiss exchange‐correlation field which couples only to the spins, and a Breit term which couples to the orbits. Changes in the total energy are obtained from the sum of the eigenvalues after broadening the levels with an effective temperature corresponding to the bandwidth. Our calculations show that, using realistic values for the parameters in the model Hamiltonian, the experimental values of the anisotropy can only be reproduced when we include the Breit term which couples to the orbits.