Electron-magnon scatterings are very important for many effects in spintronics and therefore an ab initio treatment of these processes is highly desirable. Based on the spin-density functional electron theory, an operator for the electron-magnon scattering is constructed in a second-quantization formalism for crystal electron states which are represented by linear-muffin-tin-orbital basis functions. An outlook is given as to how this operator can be used to investigate the possible contribution of these scattering processes to the ultrafast demagnetization of films after exposure to a fs optical laser pulse.

• Received 5 March 2013

DOI:https://doi.org/10.1103/PhysRevB.87.214427