First-principles study the structural, magnetic, optical properties and doping effect in chromium arsenide

TL;DR

This study uses first-principles calculations to explore the structural, magnetic, optical properties, and doping effects in chromium arsenide, revealing potential for spintronics applications.

Contribution

It provides a comprehensive analysis of various crystal structures and doping effects in CrAs, identifying phase transitions and magnetic properties relevant for device applications.

Findings

Orthorhombic MnP-type is the ground-state structure with antiferromagnetic order.

Rocksalt structure is a metastable ferromagnetic metal with high spin polarization.

Doping with Ti or Te induces phase and magnetic order transitions.

Abstract

We systematically study the pristine and doped chromium arsenide (CrAs) in six different crystal structures to investigate the structural, magnetic, and optical properties for real applications by first-principles calculations. First, we found that the ground-state structure is an orthorhombic MnP-type structure with antiferromagnetic spin order. The rocksalt structure is an low-energy metastable phase and a ferromagnetic metal with high spin polarization at the Fermi level. Secondly, the NiAs structure and MnP structure have a higher absorption coefficient than other structures in the infrared region and ultraviolet region, respectively. In the visible light region, the wurtzite and zincblende structures are more transparent than other structures. At last, we found that Ti substitution of Cr and Te substitution of As can lead to a phase transition in ground-state structure and ground-state magnetic order, respectively. These results can promote the application of the CrAs system into spintronics.