Local-moment magnetism in Mn-based pnictides

Abstract

We report a comprehensive study of electronic-correlation effects in Manganese-based antiferromagnetic pnictides BaMn${}_2$Pn${}_2$ (Pn=P,As,Sb,Bi). Our density functional theory plus slave-spin mean-field simulations indicate that all the compounds lie on the strong-coupling side of an itinerant-to-localized moment crossover, corresponding to the critical interaction strength for the Mott transition in the high-temperature paramagnetic phase. We also show that the experimental Néel temperature of each compound scales with the distance from this crossover.

9 pages, 3 figures