Electronic structure and magnetic properties of RuFe3N nitride

Self-consistent band structure calculations were performed on nitride RuFe₃N in order to investigate its magnetic and ground state properties. The Linear Muffin-Tin Orbital (LMTO) method was employed and calculations were performed at several lattice parameters so as to obtain the RuFe₃N equilibrium volume. Nonmagnetic and ferromagnetic LMTO calculations have shown that the RuFe₃N stable stage is ferromagnetic with constant lattice equilibrium of 7.2502 atomic units (a.u.). At equilibrium volume the LMTO calculations have given magnetic moments of 1.25 and 1.63 μ_B at Ru and Fe sites, respectively, and no magnetic moment at N sites. The analysis of states density at equilibrium volume as well as the results for charge transfer illustrates why this ruthenium nitride is ferromagnetic. The LMTO calculations anticipate that the magnetic moment, the hyperfine field (the Fermi contact) and the isomer shift show a strong dependence on the lattice spacing.