Magnetism in C- or N-doped MgO and ZnO: A Density-Functional Study of Impurity Pairs

作者:Wu, Hua*; Stroppa, Alessandro; Sakong, Sung; Picozzi, Silvia; Scheffler, Matthias; Kratzer, Peter
来源:Physical Review Letters, 2010, 105(26): 267203.
DOI:10.1103/PhysRevLett.105.267203

摘要

It is shown that substitution of C or N for O recently proposed as a way to create ferromagnetism in otherwise nonmagnetic oxide insulators is curtailed by formation of impurity pairs, and the resultant C-2 spin 1 dimers as well as the isoelectronic N-2(2+) interact antiferromagnetically in p-type MgO. For C-doped ZnO, however, we demonstrate using the Heyd-Scuseria-Ernzerhof hybrid functional that a resonance of the spin-polarized C-2 pp pi* states with the host conduction band results in a long-range ferromagnetic interaction. Magnetism of open-shell impurity molecules is proposed as a possible route to d(0)-ferromagnetism in oxide spintronic materials.