Anomalous ferromagnetism and magneto-optical Kerr effect in semiconducting double perovskite Ba2NiOsO6 and its (111) (Ba2NiOsO6)/(BaTiO3)10 superlattice

TL;DR

This study uses first-principles calculations to explore the ferromagnetic semiconducting properties, magneto-optical effects, and topological features of Ba2NiOsO6 and its superlattice, revealing rare ferromagnetic semiconductors with strong SOC effects.

Contribution

It reports the discovery of ferromagnetic semiconductors in Ba2NiOsO6 and its superlattice, highlighting the role of Ni-Os hybridization and spin-orbit coupling in their magnetic and electronic properties.

Findings

Both structures are ferromagnetic semiconductors with Curie temperatures of ~150 K and 70 K.

Ferromagnetism is driven by Ni-Os superexchange interaction due to strong hybridization.

Strong spin-orbit coupling on Os opens the band gap and affects magnetic moments.

Abstract

We carry out a first-principles investigation on magnetism, electronic structure, magneto-optical effects and topological property of newly grown cubic double perovskite Ba2NiOsO6 and its (111) (Ba2NiOsO6)/(BaTiO3)10 superlattice, based on the density functional theory with the generalized gradient approximation (GGA) plus onsite Couloumb interactions. Interestingly, we find that both structures are rare ferromagnetic (FM) semiconductors with estimated Curie temperatures of ~150 and 70 K, respectively. The calculated near-neighbor exchange coupling parameters reveal that the ferromagnetism is driven by exotic FM coupling between Ni and Os atoms, which is due to the FM superexchange interaction caused by the abnormally strong hybridization between the half-filled Nieg and unoccupied Os eg orbitals. The strong spin-orbit coupling (SOC) on the Os atom is found to not only open the semiconducting gap but also produce a large antiparallel orbital magnetic moment on the Os atom, thus reducing the total magnetization from 4.0 uB/f.u.,