A review of the electronic and magnetic properties of tetrahedrally bonded half-metallic ferromagnets

TL;DR

This review summarizes the theoretical understanding of the electronic and magnetic properties of tetrahedrally bonded half-metallic ferromagnets, focusing on transition-metal pnictides and chalcogenides relevant for spintronics.

Contribution

It provides a comprehensive overview of theoretical studies on bulk and low-dimensional structures of these compounds, highlighting their stability and potential for spintronic applications.

Findings

High Curie temperatures in certain compounds

Stability of the zinc-blende phase and ferromagnetism

Effects of structural distortions and defects on half-metallicity

Abstract

The emergence of the field of spintronics brought half-metallic ferromagnets to the center of scientific research. A lot of interest was focused on newly created transition-metal pnictides (such as CrAs) and chalcogenides (such as CrTe) in the metastable zinc-blende lattice structure. These compounds were found to present the advantage of high Curie temperature values in addition to their structural similarity to semiconductors. Significant theoretical activity has been devoted to the study of the electronic and magnetic properties of these compounds in an effort to achieve a better control of their experimental behaviour in realistic applications. This review is devoted to an overview of the studies of these compounds, with emphasis on theoretical results, covering their bulk properties (electronic structure, magnetism, stability of the zinc-blende phase, stability of ferromagnetism) as well as low-dimensional structures (surfaces, interfaces, nanodots and transition-metal delta-doped semiconductors) and phenomena that can possibly destroy the half-metallic property, like structural distortions or defects.