The Spintronic Properties of Rare Earth Nitrides

Abstract

The electronic structure of the rare earth nitrides is studied systematically using the {\it ab-initio} self-interaction corrected local-spin-density approximation (SIC-LSD). This approach allows both a localised description of the rare earth $f-$electrons and an itinerant description of the valence electrons. Localising different numbers of $f$-electrons on the rare earth atom corresponds to different valencies, and the total energies can be compared, providing a first-principles description of valence. CeN is found to be tetravalent while the remaining rare earth nitrides are found to be trivalent. We show that these materials have a broad range of electronic properties including forming a new class of half-metallic magnets with high magnetic moments and are strong candidates for applications in spintronic and spin-filtering devices.

7 pages, 4 figures

References in corpus (2)

• Large magnetoresistance using hybrid spin filter devices
• Ab initio study of charge order in Fe3O4

Cited by in corpus (21)

• Rare-earth mononitrides
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• GW method applied to localized 4f electron systems
• Comparison between experiment and calculated band structures for DyN and SmN
• Rare Earth Monopnictides and Monochalcogenides from First Principles: Towards an Electronic Phase Diagram of Strongly Correlated Materials
• Spin/orbit moment imbalance in the near-zero moment ferromagnetic semiconductor SmN
• Superconductivity in the ferromagnetic semiconductor SmN
• The HSE hybrid functional within the FLAPW method and its application to GdN
• \textit{Additional} carrier-mediated ferromagnetism in GdN
• Electronic structure of GdN, and the influence of exact exchange
• Optical Spectroscopy of SmN: Evidence for 4f Transport
• Nearly triple nodal point topological phase in half-metallic GdN
• Optical Response of DyN
• Highly resistive epitaxial Mg-doped GdN thin films
• Electric field and photo-excited control of the carrier concentration in GdN
• Temperature dependent electronic correlation effects in GdN
• Magnetism and electronic structure calculation of SmN
• Spin Splitting Tunable Optical Bandgap in GdN Thin Films for Spin Filtering
• Microscopic properties of degradation-free capped GdN thin films studied by Electron Spin Resonance
• NO-assisted molecular-beam epitaxial growth of nitrogen substituted EuO
• Monte Carlo simulations and critical behavior of the Rare Earth Based Alloy GdN