Half‐metallic ferromagnetism in wurtzite SrC

Abstract

The first‐principles full potential linearized augmented plane‐wave method within density‐functional theory is used to investigate electronic structure and magnetism of wurtzite (WZ) crystal structure SrC. It is shown that the WZ SrC is a true half‐metallic ferromagnet with a magnetic moment of 2μB per formula unit. The large HM gaps (0.72 eV) and robustness of half‐metallicity with respect to the lattice change make it possible candidate grown epitaxially on appropriate substrates in the form of films thick enough, and therefore should be useful in spintronics and other related applications. (© 2008 WILEY‐VCH Verlag GmbH & Co. KGaA, Weinheim)

Symmetry Induced Half-Metallic Alkaline Earth Ferromagnets

“…The HM energy gap of 0.53 eV prevents from activating majority spin channel. As in the case of other HM ferromagnets, like CaC and SrC [4,6], the carbon anion is the main contributor to the magnetic moment. The half-metallicity is attributed to the p-d hybridisation ruled by the WZ symmetry and leading to the bonding-antibonding splitting.…”

“…The other six bands in the vicinity of the Fermi level mainly originate from carbon p and barium d states, which can be easily deduced from the partial DOS. As in the case of SrC [6] the p states of carbon are strongly localised on C atom and hybridisation with the d states of Ba is rather weak, leading to flat dispersionless bands near the Fermi level. For majority spin states these bands are completely filled, while for the minority spin states they are cut by the Fermi level and thus partially occupied.…”

“…This energy of 0.72 eV needed to activate majority-spin channel shows that SrC in WZ structure is also HM ferromagnet. Results [6] of the calculations clearly demonstrate that WZ SrC is a robust HM ferromagnet with magnetic moment of 2 µ B per formula unit. The half-metallicity is maintained up to the lattice compression of 21%.…”

“…In this paper we present ab initio calculations, motivated by the described above findings [4,6]. We concentrate on BaC and BaB in WZ structure.…”

“…Recently, Chang-wen Zhang et al [6] have investigated HM ferromagnetism in wurtzite (WZ) SrC. They calculated total and partial density of states (DOS) with optimised lattice constant in the generalised gradient approximation (GGA) for the exchange-correlation potential within the framework of density functional theory (DFT).…”