The semiconductor-to-ferromagnetic-metal transition in FeSb 2
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Abstract
We propose FeSb 2 to be a nearly ferromagnetic small gap semiconductor, hence a direct analog of FeSi. We find that despite different compositions and crystal structures, in the local density approximation with on-site Coulomb repulsion correction (LDA+U) method magnetic and semiconducting solutions for U=2.6 eV are energetically degenerate similar to the case of FeSi. For both FeSb 2 and FeSi (FeSi 1-x Ge x alloys) the underlying transition mechanism allows one to switch from a small gap semiconductor to a ferromagnetic metal with magnetic moment ≈1 μ B per Fe ion with external magnetic field. Copyright EDP Sciences/Società Italiana di Fisica/Springer-Verlag 200671.27.+a Strongly correlated electron systems; heavy fermions, 71.30.+h Metal-insulator transitions and other electronic transitions,