The International Institute for Science, Technology and Education (IISTE)
Abstract
First principles study of structural and electronic properties of non- magnetic LaSn3 and CeSn3 as well as ferromagnetic PrSn3 and NdSn3 rare-earth intermetallic compounds, which crystallize in AuCu3-type structure, is performed using density functional theory based on full potential linearized augmented plane wave (FP-LAPW) method. The ground state calculations are carried out within PBE-GGA and LSDA approximations for the exchange correlation potential. Lack of availability of data regarding the above properties of RESn3 motivated us to perform systematic study of these compounds. The ground state properties such as lattice parameter are found to be in good agreement with the available experimental data. The electronic band structure calculations for the studied RESn3 compounds show metallic character in both majority and minority spin channels. Keywords: Rare-earth; Density functional theory; Metallic