https://doi.org/10.1140/epjb/e2010-00273-4
Electronic structure and magnetic coupling properties of Gd-doped AlN: first-principles calculations
1
Department of Physics, Beijing Normal University, 100875, Beijing, P.R. China
2
LCP, Institute of Applied Physics and Computational Mathematics, P.O. Box 8009, Beijing, 100088, P.R. China
3
SKLSM, Institute of Semiconductors, Chinese Academy of Sciences, P.O. Box 912, Beijing, 100083, P.R. China
Corresponding author: a rongwuli@bnu.edu.cn
Received:
19
October
2009
Revised:
16
July
2010
Published online:
22
September
2010
In this work, the electronic structure and magnetic coupling properties of Gd doped AlN have been investigated using first-principles method. We found that in the AlN:Gd system, due to the s-f coupling allowed by the symmetry, the exchange splitting of the conduction band is much larger than that of the valence band, which makes the electron-mediated ferromagnetism possible in this material. This property is also confirmed by the energy differences between anti-ferromagnetic and ferromagnetic phase for Al14Gd2N16 with different concentrations of electrons (holes), as well as by the calculated exchange constants. The result indicates that Gd-doped AlN is a promising candidate for the applications in future spintronic devices.
© EDP Sciences, Società Italiana di Fisica, Springer-Verlag, 2010