Exchange mechanism of half-metallic ferromagnetism of TiO2 doped with double impurities: A first-principles ASW study

The electronic structure and ferromagnetic properties of rutile TiO₂ doped with double-impurities Ti_1−2xCr_xMn_xO₂ has been investigated using first-principles calculations within the density-functional theory (DFT) and the local density approximation (LDA), functional for treating the effects of exchange and correlation. They were performed using the scalar-relativistic implementation of the augmented spherical wave (ASW). The advantages of doping TiO₂ with double impurities instead of single impurities are the increase of the total moment of the system and the exhibition of the half-metallic ferromagnetic nature in Cr- and Mn-doped TiO₂ rutile. These behaviors are due to the hybridization of Cr 3d states and nearest-neighboring O 2p states. The spin-spin interaction between magnetic impurities examined by the total energy between parallel and antiparallel aligned states indicated that the Cr and Mn impurities are energetically favorable to be parallel coupled, which mean that the ferromagnetic state is more stable than the ferrimagnetic one. We proposed a bond magnetic polarons (BMP) model, based on localized carriers, to explain the mechanism of ferromagnetism in these systems.     

Impurity clustering and ferromagnetic interactions that are not carrier induced in dilute magnetic semiconductors: the case of Cu2O:Co

Current models for ferromagnetism in diluted magnetic semiconductors, such as "p-d exchange" or "double-exchange", rely on the presence of partially filled gap states. We point out a new mechanism, not requiring partially filled states, in which ferromagnetic coupling arises from the occupation of previously unoccupied levels when two transition metal impurities form a close pair. We find from first-principles calculations that this mechanism explains strong ferromagnetic coupling between Co impurities in Cu2O, and at the same time gives rise to Co clustering.     

H-impurity induced high-temperature ferromagnetism in Co-doped ZnO

Through first-principles total-energy calculations, the effect of H-impurity on the magnetic properties of Co-doped ZnO is studied. Instead of an antibonding location, a bond-centered location of Co-O is the most stable location for isolated H in Co-doped ZnO with a strong bond with oxygen which results in the Co neighbor displaced from the host site to form a Co dimer with the other Co. At the most stable position, due to the strong hybridization between the H-impurity states and the Co 3d-t_2g minority spin states at the Fermi level in the gap, H-impurity can mediate a strong short-ranged and long-ranged ferromagnetic spin-spin interaction between neighboring Co atoms. Results based on first-principles total-energy calculations show that H-impurity is a very effective agent that can make Co-doped ZnO process high-temperature ferromagnetism.     

Diffusion of interstitial Mn in the dilute magnetic semiconductor (Ga,Mn)As: the effect of a charge state

Migration barriers for diffusion of interstitial Mn in the dilute magnetic semiconductor (Ga,Mn)As are studied using first-principles calculations. The diffusion pathway goes through two types of interstitial sites: As coordinated and Ga coordinated. The energy profile along the path is found to depend on the ratio of concentrations between substitutional and interstitial Mn in GaAs. Two regions of distinctly different behavior, corresponding to n-type and p-type (Ga,Mn)As, are identified. The difference in mobility is a reflection of the change in the charge state of Mn interstitials (double donors) that occurs in the presence of substitutional Mn impurities (acceptors). In addition, substitutional Mn impurities are shown to act as traps for interstitial Mn. The effective migration barrier for the positively doubly charged Mn interstitials in p-type (Ga,Mn)As is estimated to vary from 0.55 to about 0.95 eV.     

Density functional theory description of the mechanism of ferromagnetism in nitrogen-doped SnO2

Based on first-principles calculations, we have studied the occurrence of spin polarization in the magnetic metal oxide SnO₂ doped with nonmagnetic nitrogen (N) impurities. It was found that the local magnetic moments are localized mainly on the N dopant, causing a total moment of 0.95μB per cell. The long-range magnetic coupling of N-doped SnO₂ may be attributed to a p-p coupling interaction between the N impurity and host valence states.     

Room-temperature ferromagnetism of Cu-doped ZnO films probed by soft X-ray magnetic circular dichroism

We report direct evidence of room-temperature ferromagnetic ordering in O-deficient ZnO:Cu films by using soft x-ray magnetic circular dichroism and x-ray absorption. Our measurements have revealed unambiguously two distinct features of Cu atoms associated with (i) magnetically ordered Cu ions present only in the oxygen-deficient samples and (ii) magnetically disordered regular Cu2+ ions present in all the samples. We find that a sufficient amount of both oxygen vacancies (V(O)) and Cu impurities is essential to the observed ferromagnetism, and a non-negligible portion of Cu impurities is uninvolved in the magnetic order. Based on first-principles calculations, we propose a microscopic "indirect double-exchange" model, in which alignments of localized large moments of Cu in the vicinity of the V(O) are mediated by the large-sized vacancy orbitals.     

Origins of ferromagnetism in transition metal doped diamond

Using first-principles calculations, we investigated the electronic and magnetic properties of Mn-doped, Fe-doped, and Co-doped diamond. It is found that the Mn-, Fe-, and Co-doped diamond are stabilized in ferromagnetic configurations. The origins of the magnetic ordering are explained successfully by the phenomenological band coupling model based on the p–d and d–d level repulsions between the dopant ions and host elements. According to Heisenberg model, high Curie temperature may be expected for Mn-, Fe-, and Co-doped diamond if there are no native defects or other impurities.     

Dopant-assisted concentration enhancement of substitutional Mn in Si and Ge

The influence of p- and n-type electronic dopants on Mn incorporation in bulk Si and Ge is studied using first-principles calculations within density functional theory. In Si, it is found that the site preference of a single Mn atom is reversed from interstitial to substitutional in the presence of a neighboring n-type dopant. In Ge, a Mn atom is more readily incorporated into the lattice when an n-type dopant is present in its immediate neighborhood, forming a stable Mn-dopant pair with both impurities at substitutional sites. A detailed analysis of the magnetic exchange interactions between such pairs reveals a new type of magnetic anisotropy in both systems.     

Electronic and magnetic structures of V-doped zinc blende Zn1-xVxNyO1-y and Zn1-xVxPyO1-y

Electronic and magnetic structures of zinc blende ZnO doped with V impurities are studied by first-principles calculations based on the Korringa-Kohn-Rostoker (KKR) method combined with the coherent potential approximation (CPA).Calculations for the substitution of O by N or P are performed and the magnetic moment is found to be sensitive to the N or P content.Furthermore,the system exhibits a half-metallic band structure accompanied by the broadening of vanadium bands.The mechanism responsible for ferromagnetism is also discussed and the stability of the ferromagnetic state compared with that of the paramagnetic state is systematically investigated by calculating the total energy difference between them by using supercell method.     

Strain induced half-metal to semiconductor transition in GdN

We investigate the electronic structure and magnetic properties of GdN as a function of unit cell volume. Based on the first-principles calculations of GdN, we observe that there is a transformation in the conduction properties associated with the volume increase: first from half-metallic to semimetallic, then ultimately to semiconducting. We show that applying stress can alter the carrier concentration as well as mobility of the holes and electrons in the majority spin channel. In addition, we found that the exchange parameters depend strongly on lattice constant, thus the Curie temperature of this system can be enhanced by applying stress or doping impurities.     

Effect of Ni and Co impurities on the electronic structure and magnetic properties of BCC iron

A theory of disordered binary alloys A_xB_1−x (A=Ni, Co; B=Fe; x0.06) is used to determine the changes in the electronic structure and magnetic properties of body centered cubic (BCC) iron induced by doping with nickel and cobalt impurities. This approximation is an extension of the cluster-Bethe lattice method, in which we incorporate electronic correlations, itinerant and localized nature of electrons 3d, and both long-range and short-range chemical correlations. The magnetism is described by means of a Hubbard Hamiltonian that in conjunction with Green's functions techniques is used to calculate local densities of electronic states. For it we take an atom in the real lattice and it is joined to a Bethe's lattice with like coordination number. The magnetic moments on sites occupied for A and B atoms are obtained self-consistently. Nickel and cobalt impurities in BCC iron can provide crucial information on the modification of the electronic band structure and magnetic moments from pure Fe. The results obtained are compared with those of both pure Fe and binary alloys of Co–Fe and Ni–Fe, which have been obtained by other authors using methods such as: first-principles electronic structure calculations using the layer Korringa–Kohn–Rostoker (KKR), the full-potential linearized augmented plane wave method, the KKR coherent potential approximation combined with the local-density functional method and by the tight-binding linear-muffin-tin orbitals method, obtained good agree. These results and other that recently we have published indicate to us that our methodology can be a new alternative for calculations of the electronic structure and magnetic properties of impurities and alloys of ferromagnetic transition metals.     

First-Principles Study on Magnetic Properties of V-Doped ZnO Nanotubes

Electronic and magnetic properties of V-doped ZnO nanotubes in which one of Zn^2＋ ions is substituted by V^2＋ ions are studied by the first-principles calculations of plane wave ultra-soft pseudo-potential technology based on the spin-density function theory. The computational results reveal that spontaneous magnetization in Vdoped （9,0） ZnO nanotubes can be induced without p-type or n-type doping treatment, and the ferromagnetism is isotropic and independent of the chirality and diameter of the nanotubes. It is found that V-doped ZnO nanotubes have large magnetic moments and are ferromagnetic half-metal materials. Moreover, the ferromagnetic coupling among V atoms is generated by O 2p electron spins and V 3d electron spins localized at the exchanging interactions between magnetic transitional metal （TM） impurities. The appearance of ferromagnetism in V-doped ZnO nanotubes gives some reference to fabrication of a transparent ferromagnet which may have a great impact on industrial applications in magneto-optical devices.     

Effect of interstitial hydrogen impurities on ferroelectric polarization in PbTiO3

We investigate the electronic and atomic structure of interstitial hydrogen impurities in PbTiO3 and investigate their effect on ferroelectric polarization through first-principles total-energy calculations. Interstitial H in PbTiO3 is found to bond to oxygen and to act as a shallow donor impurity. At equilibrium, H does not much affect nearby Ti-O bonds and the H-O dipole increases the polarization. The barrier for reversing the defect dipole can give rise to imprint (extra stabilization of one of the two polarization modes).     

具有Dzyaloshinskii-Moriya相互作用的一维随机量子XY模型中的纠缠特性

研究了一维随机量子XY自旋链中中心两量子位的纠缠特性,在该系统中引入了自旋间的交换耦合杂质、磁杂质和Dzyaloshinskii-Moriya相互作用,并且杂质满足高斯分布关系.通过数值计算,求出了自旋的关联函数和平均磁化强度,给出了Concurrence的解析表达式.结果表明：高斯分布和Dzyaloshinskii-Moriya相互作用对两量子位的纠缠有重要的影响,选择合适的交换耦合、外界磁场和Dzyaloshinskii-Moriya相互作用参数,可以控制和提高中心两量子位的纠缠. 关键词： 纠缠 XY模型')" href="#">随机量子XY模型 高斯分布 Dzyaloshinskii-Moriya相互作用     

First-principles study of manganese-stabilized hafnia

We present a first-principles study of the electronic and magnetic properties of cubic hafnium dioxide stabilized by Mn. We find this material to be ferromagnetic and half-metallic, with the Mn-impurity electronic states lying in the band gap of hafnia for a wide range of manganese concentration. Our ab initio calculations, within the local spin-density approximation, demonstrate that Mn-doped hafnia may be ferromagnetic at 700 K while its high-T_C ferromagnetism is robust to the oxygen vacancy defects and to how the Mn impurities are distributed over the cation sublattice.     

Influence of oxygen impurities on the electronic properties of graphene nanoflakes

Controlled chemical doping with oxygen impurities is a promising approach for the electronic band engineering of graphene nanoflakes (GNFs). Based on the first-principles of the density functional theory (DFT) calculations, we investigated the effect of various consternations of substitutional impurities from oxygen atoms on the electronic properties of GNFs. Our results show that the electronic properties of GNFs do not only depend on the oxygen impurity concentrations, but also depend on the geometrical pattern of oxygen impurities in the GNFs. Additionally, we also found interesting electronic properties of GNFs structure, which significantly contribute to that oxygen dopants cause a decreased energy gap. So, our results suggest that substitutional impurities are the best viable option for enhancement of desired electronic properties of GNFs.     

Spectroscopic and magnetic mirages of impurities in nanoscopic systems

We present exact results for magnetic impurities in nanoscopic systems with focusing properties. We analyze the spectroscopic and magnetic properties of Kondo, intermediate valence, and magnetic impurities on a sphere with a metallic surface. Exact calculations show the occurrence of spectroscopic and magnetic mirages at the antipodes of the impurity location. Comparison with calculations performed using effective models validates previous calculations of spectroscopic mirages. Our results predict the existence of a strong magnetic mirage in the experimentally realizable elliptic corral.     

Spectroscopic and magnetic mirages of impurities in nanoscopic systems with focusing properties

We study the behavior of magnetic impurities in nanoscopic systems with focusing properties. In this paper, we analyze the spectroscopic and magnetic properties of Kondo, intermediate valence and magnetic impurities on a sphere with a metallic surface. Using exact calculations, we obtain important spectroscopic and magnetic mirages at the antipodes of the impurity location. When compared with calculations performed using effective models our results validate previous calculations of spectroscopic mirages. These calculations can be extended to other systems with focusing properties like quantum corrals where a similar behavior is expected.     

Possibility of measuring exchange force through force microscopy

This article describes the possibility of measuring exchange force through atomic force microscopy (AFM), based on the results of first-principles calculations for the exchange force between two magnetic Fe(001) films. We observed strong variation of the exchange force relative to the surface site. The magnitude of the force variation was larger than the force sensitivity of conventional AFM. These results suggest that a surface magnetic image with atomic resolution can be achieved by measuring the exchange force.     

Electrical switching in metallic carbon nanotubes

We present first-principles calculations of quantum transport which show that the resistance of metallic carbon nanotubes can be changed dramatically with homogeneous transverse electric fields if the nanotubes have impurities or defects. The change of the resistance is predicted to range over more than 2 orders of magnitude with experimentally attainable electric fields. This novel property has its origin that backscattering of conduction electrons by impurities or defects in the nanotubes is strongly dependent on the strength and/or direction of the applied electric fields. We expect this property to open a path to new device applications of metallic carbon nanotubes.