AB INITIO ELECTRONIC STRUCTURE CALCULATIONS OF HALF-METALLIC FERROMAGNETISM IN CALCIUM CHALCOGENIDES DOPED WITH B, C AND N

Abstract

Self-consistent ab initio calculations were carried out to study the structural, electronic and magnetic properties of nine ternary compounds Ca 4 XA 3 ( X = B , C and N ; A = S , Se and Te ). The calculations were performed by using tight-binding linear muffin tin orbital (TB-LMTO) method within the local density approximation (LDA). The calculations reveal that half-metallic ferromagnetism can be obtained for C - and N -doping with the integer magnetic moment of 2.00 μ B and 1.00 μ B per cell. However, B substitution does not induce magnetism in CaS and CaSe systems, but it produces ferromagnetism in CaTe system with magnetic moment of 2.67 μ B per cell. Moreover C - and N -doping enhance the stable ferromagnetic state in calcium chalcogenide systems. Spin-dependent electronic band structure, total and partial densities of state calculations demonstrate that localized magnetic moments substantially come from impurity atoms. Half-metallic ferromagnetism predominately originates from spin-polarization of electrons in 2p orbital states of C and N atoms. In addition, equilibrium lattice constant, bulk modulus, atomic local magnetic moments, half-metallic gap and robustness of half-metallicity have been calculated.