Scalar Relativistic Spin Polarized Electronic Structure of Ferromagnetic fcc GdAl2

Abstract

Typical magnetic Laves phase structure substances as the GdAl 2 [1] and the other RM 2 [2, 3] (R — rare earth, M — metal) have been the subject of the extensive experimental as well as theoretical studies [4-7]. Monocrystalline GdAl2 below 171 K orders ferromagnetically and shows resistivity about 100 μΩ cm [3]. A rather high (7.2B) saturation magnetic moment per Gd atom and sufficiently strong mobility of conducting electrons causes that this substance is a prototype material for testing applicability of whole s-f, s-d [8, 9] family of models. With the help of those models, applying the simplest approximations it was easy to get satisfactory quantitative description of the static magnetic properties, conductivity, ... for finite temperature. The great progress has been made during the last decade, in the field of uSing local spin density functional theory (LSDFT)for the description of even stuc-