Native defects in the Co2_2TiZZ (Z=Z= Si, Ge, Sn) full Heusler alloys: formation and influence on the thermoelectric properties

We have performed first-principles investigations on the native defects in the full Heusler alloys Co$_2$Ti$Z$ ($Z$ one of the group IV elements Si, Ge, Sn), determining their formation energies and how they influence the transport properties. We find that Co vacancies (Vc) in all compounds and the Ti$_\text{Sn}$ anti-site exhibit negative formation energies. The smallest positive values occur for Co in excess on anti-sites (Co$_Z$ or Co$_\text{Ti}$) and for Ti$_Z$. The most abundant native defects were modeled as dilute alloys, treated with the coherent potential approximation in combination with the multiple-scattering theory Green function approach. The self-consistent potentials determined this way were used to calculate the residual resistivity via the Kubo-Greenwood formula and, based on its energy dependence, the Seebeck coefficient of the systems. The latter is shown to depend significantly on the type of defect, leading to variations that are related to subtle, spin-orbit coupling induced, changes in the electronic structure above the half-metallic gap. Two of the systems, Vc$_\text{Co}$ and Co$_Z$, are found to exhibit a negative Seebeck coefficient. This observation, together with their low formation energy, offers an explanation for the experimentally observed negative Seebeck coefficient of the Co$_2$Ti$Z$ compounds as being due to unintentionally created native defects

First-principles calculation of the parameters used by atomistic magnetic simulations

While the ground state of magnetic materials is in general well described on the basis of spin density functional theory (SDFT), the theoretical description of finite-temperature and non-equilibrium properties require an extension beyond the standard SDFT. Time-dependent SDFT (TD-SDFT), which give for example access to dynamical properties are computationally very demanding and can currently be hardly applied to complex solids. Here we focus on the alternative approach based on the combination of a parameterized phenomenological spin Hamiltonian and SDFT-based electronic structure calculations, giving access to the dynamical and finite-temperature properties for example via spin-dynamics simulations using the Landau–Lifshitz–Gilbert (LLG) equation or Monte Carlo simulations. We present an overview on the various methods to calculate the parameters of the various phenomenological Hamiltonians with an emphasis on the KKR Green function method as one of the most flexible band structure methods giving access to practically all relevant parameters. Concerning these, it is crucial to account for the spin–orbit coupling (SOC) by performing relativistic SDFT-based calculations as it plays a key role for magnetic anisotropy and chiral exchange interactions represented by the DMI parameters in the spin Hamiltonian. This concerns also the Gilbert damping parameters characterizing magnetization dissipation in the LLG equation, chiral multispin interaction parameters of the extended Heisenberg Hamiltonian, as well as spin–lattice interaction parameters describing the interplay of spin and lattice dynamics processes, for which an efficient computational scheme has been developed recently by the present authors

Enhanced iron magnetic moment in the ThFe11C2 intermetallic compound

International audienceDetailed theoretical investigations on the electronic and magnetic properties of the ThFe11C2 compound have been performed using both the linear muffin-tin orbital and Korringa-Kohn-Rostocker methods of band structure calculation. The structure of the ThFe11C2 compound has three inequivalent iron sites with different local environment. A strongly enhanced magnetic moment is observed on certain Fe positions, coexisting with much lower magnetic moments on other iron positions of the lattice. Band structure calculations indeed show that the Fe magnetic moments depend strongly on the local environment. The average Fe magnetic moment obtained from these calculations is in good agreement with the experimental average Fe moment obtained from magnetization measurements. The orbital contribution to the magnetic moment is found to be especially large on the Fe 4b position. Comparing calculated hyperfine fields with experimental results, it is found that the calculated and experimental hyperfine fields are correlated. However, similarly to the results reported before for elemental Fe, the magnitude of all calculated Fe hyperfine fields is about 25% smaller. The agreement with the Mössbauer measurements is improved by scaling the core polarization contribution and by estimating the orbital valence d-electrons contribution to the magnetic hyperfine fields using the local spin density approximation + dynamical mean field theory calculated orbital moments

The Impact of Spin-Orbit Interaction on the Image States of High-Z Materials

Due to many important technical developments over the past two decades angle-resolved (inverse) photoemission has become the method of choice to study experimentally the bulk and surface-related electronic states of solids in the most detailed way. Due to new powerful photon sources as well as efficient analyzers and detectors extremely high energy and angle resolution are achieved nowadays for spin-integrated and also for spin-resolved measurements. These developments allow in particular to explore the influence of spin-orbit coupling on image potential states of simple metals like Ir, Pt, or Au with a high atomic number as well as new types of materials as for example topological insulators. Herein, fully relativistic angle- and spin-resolved inverse photoemission calculations are presented that make use of the spin-density matrix formulation of the one-step model. This way a quantitative analysis of all occupied and unoccupied electronic features in the vicinity of the Fermi level is achieved for a wide range of excitation energies. Using this approach, in addition, it is possible to deal with arbitrarily ordered but also disordered systems. Because of these features, the one-step or spectral function approach to photoemission permits detailed theoretical studies on a large variety of interesting solid-state systems.y