Metamagnetism of hexagonal iron

Summary We present the results of the fixed-spin-moment, self-consistent LMTO electronic structure calculations for hexagonal phase of iron. The relative stability of the nonmagnetic and ferromagnetic phases is discussed along with the magnetic and mechanical equations of state. It is shown that hexagonal Fe is metamagnetic with the nonmagnetic ground state, but at a sufficiently large atomic volume the system prefers a ferromagnetic solution at rather low internal magnetic pressure. These findings seem to be well correlated with the properties of the hexagonal Fe that has recently been grown epitaxially on the Ru substrate.