First-principles characterization of ferromagnetic Mn5Ge3 for spintronic applications

Abstract

In the active search for potentially promising candidates for spintronic applications, we focus on the intermetallic ferromagnetic Mn5Ge3 compound and perform accurate first-principles FLAPW calculations within density functional theory. Through a careful investigation of the bulk electronic and magnetic structure, our results for the total magnetization, atomic magnetic moments, metallic conducting character and hyperfine fields are found to be in good agreement with experiments, and are elucidated in terms of a hybridization mechanism and exchange interaction. In order to assess the potential of this compound for spin-injection purposes, we calculate Fermi velocities and degree of spin-polarization; our results predict a rather high spin-injection efficiency in the diffusive regime along the hexagonal c-axis. Magneto-optical properties, such as L_2,3 X-ray magnetic circular dichroism, are also reported and await comparison with experimental data.

10 pages with 6 figures, to appear in Phys. Rev. B

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• Spintronics: Fundamentals and applications
• How to calculate the degree of spin polarization in ferromagnets?
• Coordination and chemical effects on the structural, electronic and magnetic properties in Mn pnictides
• Strongly Enhanced Curie Temperature in Carbon-Doped Mn5Ge3 Films
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Cited by in corpus (14)

• Magnetic and structural properties of GeMn films: precipitation of intermetallic nanomagnets
• Spin Polarization and Electonic Structure of Room-Curie Ferromagnetic Mn5Ge3 Epilayers
• Simulation of the enhanced Curie temperature in Mn_5Ge_3C_x compounds
• Revisiting the Mn-doped Ge using the Heyd-Scuseria-Ernzerhof hybrid functional
• Magnetocaloric effect and its implementation in critical behavior study of Mn4FeGe3-xSix intermetallic compounds
• Non-collinear Magnetic states of Mn5Ge3 compound
• High Curie temperature Mn 5 Ge 3 thin films produced by non-diffusive reaction
• Ferromagnetic resonance and magnetic damping in C-doped Mn5Ge3
• {Spin polarization tuning in Mn${}_x$Fe${}_{1-x}$Ge${}_3$
• Epitaxial Mn5Ge3 (100) layer on Ge(100) substrates obtained by flash lamp annealing
• Memory effect of Mn${}_5$Ge${}_3$ nanomagnets embedded inside a Mn-diluted Ge matrix
• Signatures of electron-boson coupling in half-metallic ferromagnet Mn${}_5$Ge${}_3$: study of electron self-energy $\Sigma (\omega )$ obtained from infrared spectroscopy
• Magnetic Mn5Ge3 nanocrystals embedded in crystalline Ge: a magnet/semiconductor hybrid synthesized by ion implantation
• X-ray magnetic circular dichroism in (Ge,Mn) compounds: experiments and modeling