Tunable electrical and magnetic properties of half-metallic Zn(x)Fe(3-x)O4 from first principles.
The electrical and magnetic properties of Zn-doped Fe(3)O(4) at different doping concentrations of Zn have been investigated using a density functional method with generalized-gradient approximation corrected for on-site Coulombic interactions. The electronic structure calculation predicts that Zn(x)Fe(3-x)O(4) (0 ≤x≤ 0.875) is half-metallic with a full spin polarization. The hopping carrier concentration of Zn(x)Fe(3-x)O(4) decreases with increasing x, which indicates a distinct increase in the resistivity. The saturation magnetization of Zn(x)Fe(3-x)O(4) increases evidently with increasing x from x = 0 to x = 0.75 (i.e. from 4.0 to 8.3 μ(B)/f.u.) and then decreases rapidly to zero at x = 1. The robust half-metallicity, large tunability of electrical and magnetic properties of a Zn doped Fe(3)O(4) system make it a promising functional material for spintronic applications.
Department of Electronics, Nankai University, Tianjin 300071, China.
Y H
YH
Cheng
L Y
LY
Li
W H
WH
Wang
Hui
H
Liu
S W
SW
Ren
X Y
XY
Cui
R K
RK
Zheng