Abstract
Both magnetic structure and magnetic anisotropy energy (MAE) are calculated for fcc and fct Ni films on Cu(001) for thicknesses from 1 to 10 monolayers (ML). The transition from in-plane to perpendicular anisotropy can be attributed to the volume contribution to the MAE in fct films which is discussed in terms of layer-resolved band energies. For thicknesses below 5 ML the effect of quantized electronic states is significant.