Half Metallic Ferrimagnetism in Hole-Doped Lanthanide Iridates

Abstract

Electronic and magnetic properties of a material of double perovskite [Pr 2−x Sr x MgIrO 6] 2 had been studied by first-principles density functional approach. Under the cooperative effect of spin-orbit coupling (SOC) and Coulomb interactions of Ir-5d and Pr-4f electrons, our calculations reveal half metallic ferrimagnetism (HMFiM) with the total angular moment μ t o t = ±3μ B per unit cell for x = 0.5 and 1.5, desirable for spintronic applications. HMFiM is fully retained in presence of SOC due to the large exchange splitting between spin-up and spin-down bands at the Fermi level