Magnetic collapse in Fe$_3$Se$_4$ under high pressure

TL;DR

This study uses density functional theory to investigate how high pressure affects the magnetic properties of Fe$_3$Se$_4$, revealing a transition from ferrimagnetic to paramagnetic states at high pressures.

Contribution

It provides the first detailed analysis of pressure-induced magnetic phase transitions in Fe$_3$Se$_4$ using computational methods.

Findings

Magnetic moments of Fe atoms vary with pressure.

Magnetic order changes from ferrimagnetic to ferromagnetic at 7% compression.

System becomes paramagnetic at 14% compression, corresponding to 114 GPa.

Abstract

Electronic structure and magnetic properties of Fe$_3$Se$_4$ are calculated using the density functional approach. Due to the metallic properties, magnetic moments of the iron atoms in two nonequivalent positions in the unit cell are different from ionic values for Fe$^{3+}$ and Fe$^{2+}$ and are equal to $M_1=2.071 \mu_B$ and $M_2=-2.042 \mu_B$, making the system ferrimagnetic. The total magnetic moment for the unit cell is $2.135 \mu_B$. Under isotropic compression, the total magnetic moment decreases non-monotonically and correlates with the non-monotonic dependence of the density of states at the Fermi level $N(E_F)$. For 7% compression, the magnetic order changes from the ferrimagnetic to the ferromagnetic. At 14% compression, the magnetic order disappears and the total magnetic moment becomes zero, leaving the system in a paramagnetic state. This compression corresponds to the pressure of 114 GPa. The magnetic ordering changes faster upon application of an isotropic external pressure due to the sizeable anisotropy of the chemical bondings in Fe$_3$Se$_4$. The ferrimagnetic and paramagnetic states occur under pressures of 5.0 and 8.0 GPa, respectively. The system remains in the metallic state for all values of compression.