Mn-stabilized zirconia: from imitation diamonds to a new potential high-Tc ferromagnetic spintronics material.
From the basis of ab initio electronic structure calculations which include the effects of thermally excited magnetic fluctuations, we predict Mn-stabilized cubic zirconia to be ferromagnetic above 500 K. We find this material, which is well known both as an imitation diamond and as a catalyst, to be half-metallic with the majority and minority spin Mn impurity states lying in zirconia's wide gap. The Mn concentration can exceed 40%. The high-Tc ferromagnetism is robust to oxygen vacancy defects and to how the Mn impurities are distributed on the Zr fcc sublattice. We propose this ceramic as a promising future spintronics material.
Ostanin
S
S
Max-Planck-Institut für Mikrostrukturphysik, Weinberg 2, D-06120 Halle (Saale), Germany.
Ernst
A
A
Sandratskii
L M
LM
Bruno
P
P
Däne
M
M
Hughes
I D
ID
Staunton
J B
JB
Hergert
W
W
Mertig
I
I
Kudrnovský
J
J