J Supercond Nov Magn DOI 10.1007/s10948-017-4128-z ORIGINAL PAPER Structural, Magnetic, and Magneto-Optical Properties of Fe/Cu Superlattices Amina Djabri 1 · Mohamed Mahdi 1 · Radia Boukhalfa 1 · Mustafa Erkovan 2 · Yurii Chumakov 3 · Fa¨ıc¸al Chemam 1 Received: 4 April 2017 / Accepted: 11 April 2017 © Springer Science+Business Media New York 2017 Abstract The magnetic and magneto-optical properties of face-centered cubic (fcc)-Fe/nCu (001) superlattices are studied and compared with the fcc-Fe bulk structure. This is done using the method of all electron linearized augmented wave planes (FP L APW) in the local spin density functional approximation (DFT), implemented in the WIEN2k code, with the local spin density approximation for the exchange and correlation. As far as the magnetic properties are con- cerned, a significant increase of the magnetic moment of the iron atoms and the magnetic anisotropy energy (MAE) of the system is observed with increasing copper layers. A slight polarization occurs, with emergence of a small mag- netic moment of copper atoms, due to the hybridization between the iron and copper orbitals. An antiferromagnetic phase of the system is observed, caused by the d states. The contraction film’s structure explains the continuous decay of the magnetic moment; therefore, the magneto-optical Kerr effect response could be investigated through the optical conductivity. In spite of their great magnetic moment, Kerr’s spectra are explained in terms of optical transitions and the MAE of the systems is calculated.  Fa¨ıc¸al Chemam fchemam@gmail.com 1 Laboratory of Applied and Theoretical Physics, Sciences of Matter Department, University Laarbi Tebessi, Tebessa, Algeria 2 Nanoscience and Nanotechnology Department, Sakarya University, Adapazarı, Sakarya Turkey 3 Department of Physics, Gebze Technical University, C¸ ayırova, Kocaeli, Turkey Keywords DFT · Superlattices · Magneto-optics · Magnetic anisotropy · Fe(fcc) · Cu 1 Introduction The magnetic nanostructure with different magnetic com- pounds of iron like Fe/Co, Fe/Mn, Fe/Ni, and Fe/Au [1–4] is characterized by enhanced magnetic moments and large magnetic anisotropic energy, different from those of the bulk materials. The Fe-Cu system has been studied by different groups [5–8]; the system is interesting because of its funda- mental physical properties and advanced applications in giant magnetoresistance (GMR) and spintronic devices [9–11]. Many experimental and theoretical investigations of the magnetic properties of the face-centered cubic (fcc)-Fe/Cu have been carried out. Mitani et al. [12] made correlations between the magnetic moment and the interlayer distance, by preparing experimentally the epitaxial growth of fcc-Fe layers on Cu (1 0 0). The experimental magneto-optical Kerr effect (MOKE) of the fcc-Fe on Cu(1 0 0) is treated in [13]. The magnetic properties and structure of the Fe/Cu (1 0 0) surface and Cu/Fe(n)/Cu sandwich system have been extensively studied by first-principles calculations [14, 15]. Zhou et al. have calculated the exchange coupling constant J by using the Ising model and the semi-relativistic all- electron linearized augmented planewave (LAPW) method for the fcc-nFe/1Cu(001) (n = 1–9 ML) superlattices [16– 18]. Kuch et al. [19] found that Fe in FeCu alloy exhibits a magnetic moment comparable to that in Fe/Cu thin films as well as the ratio between orbital and spin contribution to the Fe d moments is significantly enhanced in alloy. The main objective of this study is to carry out the first-principles calculations of the magnetic properties and electronic struc- tures of the Fe/nCu (n = 1, 3, 5, 7, 9) superlattices,