Half-metallic ferromagnetism in Cu-doped zinc-blende ZnO from first principles study

Electronic structures and magnetism of Cu-doped zinc-blende ZnO have been investigated by the first-principle method based on density functional theory (DFT). The results show that Cu can induce stable ferromagnetic ground state. The magnetic moment of supercell including single Cu atom is 1.0 μ_B. Electronic structure shows that Cu-doped zinc-blende ZnO is a p-type half-metallic ferromagnet. The half-metal property is mainly attribute to the crystal field splitting of Cu 3d orbital, and the ferromagnetism is dominated by the hole-mediated double exchange mechanism. Therefore, Cu-doped zinc-blende ZnO should be useful in semiconductor spintronics and other applications.     

Stabilities,electronic and magnetic properties of Cu-doped nickel clusters: a DFT investigation

In this paper, we investigate the electronic and magnetic properties of Cu-doped nickel clusters by means of density functional theory. The stabilities of these clusters have also been studied in terms of the binding energies, second-order difference of energies, fragmentation energies and HOMO–LUMO energy gaps. The obtained results reveal that the N₄Cu, N₅Cu and Ni₇Cu clusters are found to be more stable that than all other clusters. Higher HOMO–LUMO gap was observed for Ni₅Cu cluster (2.265 eV), indicating its higher chemical stability. A half-metallic behaviour has also been observed for the Ni_nCu clusters, which suggests that these clusters can be employed as nanocatalysts for several catalytic processes, particularly for hydrogenation and dehydrogenation reactions. The magnetism calculations show that the magnetic moment is mostly located on the Ni atoms, and the contribution of the Cu atom to the total magnetic moment in the Ni_nCu clusters is very small. Furthermore, partial density of states analysis indicates that the 3d orbitals in Ni atoms are mostly responsible for the magnetic behaviour of these clusters, and the s orbitals have a very little contribution to the total magnetic moment.     

N空位对Cu掺杂AlN电磁性质的影响的第一性原理研究

利用基于密度泛函理论的平面波超软赝势法研究了N空位对Cu掺杂AlN的电子结构和磁学性质的影响。结果表明,与Cu最近邻的N原子更易失去形成N空位。N空位的引入减小了Cu掺杂AlN体系的半金属能隙;减弱了Cu及其近邻N原子的自旋极化的强度以及Cu3d与N2p轨道间的杂化,因而减小了体系的半金属铁磁性。因此,制备Cu掺杂AlN稀磁半导体时应尽可能地避免产生N空位。     

Effect of codoping with C or N on electronic structures and magnetic properties of ZnO:Cu

Using first-principles calculations based on density functional theory, we investigated systematically the electronic structures and magnetic properties of ZnO:Cu. The results indicate that Cu-doped ZnO prefers a ferromagnetic ground state and behaves like a half-metallic ferromagnet. The magnetic moment mainly localizes at Cu atom and the rest mainly comes from the spin polarized O atoms. It has been found that the ferromagnetic stability can be enhanced slightly by substituting an oxygen atom with one N atom; while the ferromagnetic stability can be weakened by replacing one O atom with a C atom. Due to absence of magnetic ion and the 100% spin polarization of the carriers in ZnO:Cu, one can expect that Cu-doped ZnO would be a useful half-metallic ferromagnet both in practical application and in theoretical studies.     

Cu、Ag和Au掺杂AlN的电磁性质的第一性原理研究

采用基于密度泛函理论（DFT）的平面波超软赝势法,研究了Cu、Ag、Au掺杂AlN的晶格常数、磁矩、能带结构和态密度。电子结构表明,Cu、Ag、Au的掺杂使在带隙中引入了由杂质原子的d态与近邻N原子的2p态杂化而成的杂质带,都为p型掺杂,增强了体系的导电性。Cu掺杂AlN具有半金属铁磁性,半金属能隙为0.442eV,理论上可实现100%的自旋载流子注入;Ag掺杂AlN具有很弱的半金属铁磁性;而Au掺杂AlN不具有半金属铁磁性。因此,与Ag、Au相比,Cu更适合用来制作AlN基稀磁半导体。     

Magnetic and structural study of Cu-doped TiO2 thin films

Transparent pure and Cu-doped (2.5, 5 and 10 at.%) anatase TiO₂ thin films were grown by pulsed laser deposition technique on LaAlO₃ substrates. The samples were structurally characterized by X-ray absorption spectroscopy and X-ray diffraction. The magnetic properties were measured using a SQUID. All films have a FM-like behaviour. In the case of the Cu-doped samples, the magnetic cycles are almost independent of the Cu concentration. Cu atoms are forming CuO and/or substituting Ti in TiO₂. The thermal treatment in air promotes the CuO segregation. Since CuO is antiferromagnetic, the magnetic signals present in the films could be assigned to Cu substitutionally replacing cations in TiO₂.     

First-principles study on the origin of ferromagnetism in n-type Cu-doped ZnO

Based on the density functional calculations with the GGA+U correction, we elucidate the origin of the experimentally reported ferromagnetism in n-type Cu-doped ZnO. Pure Cu-doped ZnO shows the unoccupied 3d states in the gap introduced by Cu, resulting in the insulating ground state and weak magnetic exchange interactions, in contrast to the half-metallic ground state and high ferromagnetic stability predicted by the calculations without U correction. However, the electron traps induced by Cu in n-type Cu-doped ZnO may lead to the partial occupancy of the Cu gap states, which stabilize the ferromagnetic ordering between two Cu atoms.     

Preparation of p-type CdS thin films and in situ dark conductivity in vacuum deposited CdS:Cu films

CdS:Cu thin films were prepared using a vacuum co-evaporation technique. The Hall measurements indicate that the conductivity characteristic of CdS thin films transformed from highly compensated in as-grown or weakly annealed materials to p-type conductive in strongly annealed materials. X-ray diffraction spectra show that as-deposited thin films were the hexagonal phase of CdS except the presence of copper for high Cu doping and the diffraction peaks of Cu disappeared after annealing. From the X-ray photoelectron spectroscopy we found the ionization of Cu atoms and the formation of an acceptor level. In situ dark conductivity in vacuum as-deposited CdS:Cu was performed in the temperature range between 27 and 250 °C. An abnormal temperature dependence of conductivity was observed in medium and heavily Cu-doped films. The formation of a p-type material at a certain temperature was also studied by the hot probe measurements, which indicates a complex compensation process in the Cu-doped CdS films.     

Electronic structures and magnetic properties in Cu-doped two-dimensional dichalcogenides

We explore the electronic structures and magnetic properties in Cu-doped MX₂ (=MoS₂, MoSe₂, MoTe₂, and WS₂) based on density functional theory. A Cu dopant leads to a net moment of 5.0 or 1.0 μ_B in MX₂, which mainly depend on the size of crystal-field splitting relative to that of the spin splitting. No magnetism is observed in Cu-doped MoTe₂. The local distortion around the Cu atom reduces the total magnetic moment in two-Cu-doped MX₂. The magnetic coupling between the nearest neighboring Cu atoms is ferromagnetic for all the cases, but they demonstrate various magnetic ground states with the increasing distance between Cu atoms: the Cu-doped MoS₂ and WS₂ exhibit anti-ferromagnetic and nonmagnetic ground state, respectively. A long-range ferromagnetic or ferrimagnetic coupling is attributed to double-exchange interaction in Cu-doped MoSe₂. Half-metallic ferromagnetism with Curie temperature above room temperature in Cu-doped MoSe₂ provides a useful guidance to engineer the magnetic properties of MoSe₂ in experiments.     

First-principle study on electronic structure and magnetic properties of molecular-based antiferromagnet: (2-amino-5-chloropyridinium)2CuBr4

The electronic structure and magnetic properties of the (2-amino-5-chloropyridinium)₂CuBr₄ compound were studied using the full potential augmented plane wave plus local-orbitals method (FP-APW+lo) within density functional theory. The Cu atoms are the magnetic centers, magnetic moments originate mainly from the Cu 3d and Br 4p states, leading to a total magnetic moment of 1.00 μ_B per molecule. There is an important hybridization between the Cu 3d and Br 4p states, which causes the magnetic interactions between the Cu centers to pass through the Br p-orbitals near the Cu atoms. According to the self-consistent total energies, it was found that in the ground state there exist antiferromagnetic interactions for both intraplanar and interplanar magnetic exchange, but the latter is much weaker than the former.     

Band structure calculations for Heusler phase Co2YBi and half-Heusler phase CoYBi (Y=Mn, Cr)

We have studied the electron structure and magnetic properties of Heusler phase Co₂YBi and half-Heusler phase CoYBi (Y=Mn, Cr) by using the full-potential linearized-augmented plane-wave (FLAPW) method. Co₂MnBi and Co₂CrBi are predicted to be half-metallic magnetism with a total magnetic moment of 6 and 5 μ_B, respectively, well consistent with the Slater-Pauling rule. We also predict CoMnBi to be half-metallic magnetism with a slight compression. The gap origin for Co₂MnBi and Co₂CrBi is due to the 3d electron splitting of Mn (Cr) and Co atoms, and the gap width depends on Co electron splitting. The atom coordination surroundings have a great influence on the electron structure, and consequently the Y site in the X₂YZ structure has a more remarkable electron splitting than the X site due to the more symmetric surroundings. The investigation regarding the lattice constant dependence of magnetic moment shows that the Co magnetic moment exhibits an opposite behavior with the change of the lattice constant for Heusler and half-Heusler alloys, consequently leading to the different variation trends for total magnetic moment. The variation of total and atom magnetic moment versus lattice constant can be explained by the extent of 3d electron splitting and localization of Mn (Cr) and Co atoms for both the series of alloys.     

Magnetic and optical properties of Cu-doped ZnO nanosheet: First-principles calculations

We performed first-principles calculations within density-functional theory to study the magnetic and optical properties of Cu-doped ZnO nanosheet (NS). We found that Cu atom prefers to substitute for Zn site and can induce a local magnetic moment of 1.00 μ_B per unit in ZnO NS. When two Zn atoms are substituted by two Cu dopants, they tend to form a cluster and ferromagnetic (FM) ordering becomes energetically more favorable. In addition, localized states appear within the band gap due to the introduction of Cu dopant to ZnO NS. With increasing Cu concentrations, both the imaginary part of dielectric function and the absorption spectrum exhibit a red-shift behavior, which are in good agreement with the recent experimental results. The ferromagnetic coupling can be attributed to the p–d hybridization mechanism. The intriguing properties of Cu-doped ZnO NS may be promising for designing novel multifunctional nanodevice.     

Magnetism without magnetic ions in non-magnetic perovskites SrTiO3, SrZrO3 and SrSnO3

Using the full-potential linearized augmented plane-wave (FP-LAPW) method with the generalized gradient approximation (GGA) for the exchange-correlation potential, we studied spin polarization induced by replacement of oxygen atoms by non-magnetic 2p impurities (B, C and N) in non-magnetic cubic SrMO₃ perovskites, where M=Ti, Zr and Sn. The results show that the magnetization may appear because of the spin–split impurity bands inside the energy gap of the insulating SrMO₃ matrix. Large magnetic moments are found for the impurity centers. Smaller magnetic moments are induced on the oxygen atoms around impurities. It is shown that SrTiO₃:C and SrSnO₃:C should be magnetic semiconductors while other compounds in this series (SrTiO₃:B, SrTiO₃:N and SrZrO₃:C) are expected to exhibit magnetic half-metallic or pseudo-half-metallic properties.     

Mn掺杂对半金属铁磁体Fe_2Si电磁特性的影响

此文用基于密度泛函理论第一性原理的贋势平面波方法,计算了Fe_2Si及Mn掺杂Fe_2Si体系的能带结构、电子态密度和磁学特性,分析了不同位置Mn掺杂对Fe_2Si电磁特性的影响,获得了纯的和不同位置Mn掺杂的Fe_2Si体系是铁磁体,自旋向上的能带结构穿过费米面表现金属特性,纯Fe_2Si的半金属隙为0.164e V;Mn掺杂在Fe1位时,自旋向下部分转变为A-M间的间接带隙半导体,体系呈现半金属特性,此时磁矩为2.00μB,是真正的半金属性铁磁体;掺杂在Fe2位时,自旋向下部分的带隙值接近于0,体系呈现金属特性;掺杂在Fe3位时,自旋向下部分转变为L-L间的直接带隙半导体,体系呈现半金属特性等有益结果 .自旋电荷密度分布图表明Mn原子的3d电子比较局域,和周围原子成键时3d电子更倾向于形成共价键.体系的半金属性和磁性主要来源于Fe-3d电子与Mn-3d电子之间的d-d交换,Si-3p电子与Fe、Mn-3d电子之间的p-d杂化.这些结果为半金属铁磁体Fe_2Si的电磁调控提供了有效的理论指导.     

Ab initio studies of half-metallic ferromagnetism in carbon-doped CeO2

The electronic structures and magnetic properties in Carbon-doped CeO₂ have been investigated by means of first-principles calculations based on the LSDA+U scheme. The results demonstrate a magnetic moment of 2.00 μ_B per supercell with one Carbon dopant which mainly stems from Hund’s rule coupling based on rather localized 2p, 5d and 4f states. The hole-mediated long-range magnetic coupling between local magnetic moments can be attributed to the collective effects of the p–p, p–d, and p–f hybridizations between C and neighboring O or Ce atoms. Ferromagnetism and half-metallic characteristics of C-doped CeO₂ make it possible to be an ideal material for spintronic devices.     

First-principles study of ferromagnetism in Zn- and Cd-doped SnO2

The electronic structures and magnetic properties of Zn- and Cd-doped SnO₂ are investigated using first-principles calculations within the generalized gradient approximation (GGA) and GGA+U scheme. The substitutional Zn and Cd atoms introduce holes in the 2p orbitals of the O atoms and the introduced holes are mostly confined to the minority-spin states. The magnetic moment induced by doping mainly comes from the 2p orbitals of the O atoms, among which the moment of the first neighboring O atoms around the dopant are the biggest. The U correction for the anion-2p states obviously increases the moment of the first neighboring O atoms and transforms the ground states of the doped SnO₂ from half-metallic to insulating. The magnetic coupling between the moments induced by two dopants is ferromagnetic and the origin of ferromagnetic coupling can be attributed to the p–d hybridization interaction involving holes.     

Study of point defect on the stability and magneto-optical properties of ZnO:Cu by first-principles

ABSTRACT

The magnetic and optical properties of Cu-doped ZnO systems have been widely studied in experimental, but the magnetic sources of the coexistence of Cu replacing Zn and the O vacancy systems are controversial. First-principles can compensate for the experimental deficiencies. The effects of Cu-doping and point defects on the magnetic and optical properties of ZnO were studied using geometry optimisation and energy calculation based on first-principle generalised gradient approximation?+?U method of the density functional theory. Results indicate that the band gaps and absorption spectra of Zn₁₅CuO₁₆, Zn₁₄CuO₁₆, and Zn₁₅Cu_iO₁₆ systems become narrowed and red-shifted, respectively, compared with those of pure ZnO. In addition, the system with Cu replaces Zn, and Zn vacancy coexists in ZnO. The doping system has the relatively largest magnetic moment and can achieve a ferromagnetic long-range order, and the Curie temperature can reach room temperature. As an electron injection source, this system can reach 100% electron spin-polarisation and exhibit half-metallic properties, which are relatively favourable for dilute magnetic semiconductor (DMS). Therefore, this system has certain theoretical reference value in the design and preparation of light-emitting devices or DMS.     

Ab initio prediction of half-metallic ferromagnetism in Zn(TM)O2 (TM=Cr,Mn, Fe,Co, Ni) compounds

From the results of first principles tight-binding linear muffin-tin orbital (TB-LMTO) calculations, half-metallic ferromagnetism is proposed in Zn(TM)O₂ with a chalcopyrite structure. The calculated electronic and magnetic property shows that consistent with the integer value for the total magnetic moment, half metallicity is obtained for ZnCrO₂, ZnMnO₂, ZnFeO₂, ZnCoO₂ and ZnNiO₂. A careful analysis of the spin density reveals the ferromagnetic coupling between the p–d states and the cation dangling-bond p states, which is believed to be responsible for the stabilization of the ferromagnetic phase. The calculated heat of formation, bulk modulus and cohesive energy are reported.     

Structural, electronic and magnetic properties of the 3d transition metal-doped GaN nanotubes

We have performed first-principles calculations on the structural, electronic and magnetic properties of seven different 3d transition-metal (TM) impurity (V, Cr, Mn, Fe, Co, Ni and Cu) doped armchair (5,0) and zigzag (8,0) gallium nitride nanotubes (GaNNTs). The results show that there is distortion around 3d TM impurities with respect to the pristine GaNNTs for 3d TM-doped (5,5) and (8,0) GaNNTs. The change of total magnetic moment follows Hund’s rule for 3d TM-doped (5,5) and (8,0) GaNNTs, respectively. The total density of states (DOS) indicates that Cr-, Mn-, Fe- and Ni-doped (5,5) GaNNTs as well as Cr-, Mn-, Ni- and Cu-doped (8,0) GaNNTs are all half-metals with 100% spin polarization. The study suggests that such TM-doped nanotubes may be useful in spintronics and nanomagnets.     

First-principles study on the magnetism and electronic structure in 3d transition metal (X=Sc,V, Cr,Mn, Fe,Ni, Cu) doped CoO

We have studied the electronic structure and magnetism of the single transitional metal element X=Sc, V, Cr, Mn, Fe, Ni, Cu-doped CoO systems by first-principles calculations. At X=Sc, Cr, Cu, the binding energy of the doped systems is lower than pure CoO, suggesting that these systems are energetically stable. In the Sc, V, Cr, Mn, Fe, Ni, Cu-doped 2×2×2 CoO supercells, the total magnetic moments are 3.03, 5.64, 6.80, 7.70, 6.93, 2.30 and 1.96 μ_B, respectively. At X=Cr and Fe, the doped CoO systems are half-metallic with a high spin polarization. The large magnetic moment and high spin polarization in the Cr and Fe-doped CoO are important for the design of the spintronic devices.