Abstract

In the present work we investigated theoretically the electronic, magnetic and structural properties of two rare-earth nitrides (REN: RE = Sm, Eu) by using self- consistent tight-binding linear muffin tin orbital (TBLMTO) method. Magnetically, both the rare earth nitrides (RENs) are stable in ferromagnetic (FM) state, while its ambient structure is found to be stable in NaCl-type (B1) structure. From the present study we predict the pressure induced structural phase transition in both RENs from the relatively open NaCl-type structure into more dense CsCl-type structure at 8.6 GPa and 14.6 GPa respectively. They form a new class of half-metallic magnets with high magnetic moments and are strong candidates for applications in spintronics and spinfiltering devices. We have therefore, calculated electronic band structures, equilibrium lattice constants, cohesive energies, bulk moduli and magnetic moments for REN compounds in both B1 and B2 phases.

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