Magnetic and electronic properties of Cr- and Mn-doped SnO2: ab initio calculations

Abstract

The ab initio calculations, based on the Korringa–Kohn–Rostoker (KKR) approximation method combined with the coherent potential approximation (CPA), indicated as KKR–CPA, have been used to study the stability of ferromagnetic and ferrimagnetic states, for systems that are SnO2 doped and co-doped with two transition metals, that is, chromium and manganese. Our results indicate that the ferromagnetic state is more stable than the spin-glass state for the (Sn1−xCrxO2; x = 0.07, 0.09, 0.12 and 0.15)-doped system, while the spin-glass state is more stable than the ferromagnetic state for the (Sn1−xMnxO2; x = 0.02 and 0.05)-doped system. However, the ferromagnetic and/or the ferrimagnetic states are stable for the (Sn0.98−xMn0.02CrxO2; x = 0.05, 0.09 and 0.13)-doped system depending on the Cr concentration. Moreover, we estimated the Curie temperature (Tc) for the Cr-doped tin dioxide (SnO2), and we explained the origin of magnetic behaviour through the total density of states for different doped and co-doped SnO2 systems.