Spin Gapless Semiconductor–Nonmagnetic Semiconductor Transitions in Fe-Doped Ti<sub>2</sub>CoSi: First-Principle Calculations

Employing first-principle calculations, we investigated the influence of the impurity, Fe atom, on magnetism and electronic structures of Heusler compound Ti<sub>2</sub>CoSi, which is a spin gapless semiconductor (SGS). When the impurity, Fe atom, intervened, Ti<sub>2</sub>Co...

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Bibliographic Details
Main Authors: Yu Feng, Zhou Cui, Ming-sheng Wei, Bo Wu, Sikander Azam
Format: Article
Language:English
Published: MDPI AG 2018-11-01
Series:Applied Sciences
Subjects:
Online Access:https://www.mdpi.com/2076-3417/8/11/2200
Description
Summary:Employing first-principle calculations, we investigated the influence of the impurity, Fe atom, on magnetism and electronic structures of Heusler compound Ti<sub>2</sub>CoSi, which is a spin gapless semiconductor (SGS). When the impurity, Fe atom, intervened, Ti<sub>2</sub>CoSi lost its SGS property. As Ti<sup>A</sup> atoms (which locate at (0, 0, 0) site) are completely occupied by Fe, the compound converts to half-metallic ferromagnet (HMF) TiFeCoSi. During this SGS→HMF transition, the total magnetic moment linearly decreases as Fe concentration increases, following the Slate–Pauling rule well. When all Co atoms are substituted by Fe, the compound converts to nonmagnetic semiconductor Fe<sub>2</sub>TiSi. During this HMF→nonmagnetic semiconductor transition, when Fe concentration y ranges from y = 0.125 to y = 0.625, the magnetic moment of Fe atom is positive and linearly decreases, while those of impurity Fe and Ti<sup>B</sup> (which locate at (0.25, 0.25, 0.25) site) are negative and linearly increase. When the impurity Fe concentration reaches up to y = 1, the magnetic moments of Ti, Fe, and Si return to zero, and the compound is a nonmagnetic semiconductor.
ISSN:2076-3417