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Spin-gapless and half-metallic ferromagnetism in potassium and calcium δ-doped GaN digital magnetic heterostructures for possible spintronic applications: insights from first principles

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Abstract

The reports previously issued predominantly paid attention to the d-block magnetic elements δ-doped digital magnetic materials. In this work, GaN δ-doped with non-magnetic main group s-block elements K and Ca as digital magnetic heterostructures were purposed and explored theoretically. We found that K- and Ca-embedded GaN digital alloys exhibit spin-gapless and half-metallic ferromagnetic characteristics, respectively. All compounds obey the Slater–Pauling rule with diverse electronic and magnetic properties. For these digital ferromagnetic heterostructures, spin polarization occurs in nitrogen within a confined space around the δ-doped layer, demonstrating a hole-mediated two-dimensional magnetic phenomenon.

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Acknowledgements

This work was supported in part by the National Natural Science Foundations of China under Grant Nos. 11204209, 60876035, and 61334005, in part by the Nature Science Foundations of Tianjin City (Grant No. 13JCZDJC32800), and in part by the Seed Foundation of Tianjin University.

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  1. Shengjie Dong

    Present address: Tianjin Key Laboratory for Modern Drug Delivery and High-Efficiency, School of Pharmaceutical Science and Technology, Tianjin University, Tianjin, 300072, People’s Republic of China

Authors and Affiliations

  1. Tianjin Key Laboratory of Low Dimensional Materials Physics and Preparing Technology, Faculty of Science, Tianjin University, Tianjin, 300072, People’s Republic of China

    Jiangtao Du & Liefeng Feng

  2. Department of Physics, Tianjin Normal University, Tianjin, 300387, People’s Republic of China

    Shengjie Dong & Hui Zhao

  3. Tianjin Key Laboratory of Film Electronic and Communicate Devices, School of Electronics Information Engineering, Tianjin University of Technology, Tianjin, 300384, People’s Republic of China

    Baozeng Zhou

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Correspondence to Liefeng Feng.

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Du, J., Dong, S., Zhou, B. et al. Spin-gapless and half-metallic ferromagnetism in potassium and calcium δ-doped GaN digital magnetic heterostructures for possible spintronic applications: insights from first principles. Appl. Phys. A 123, 220 (2017). https://doi.org/10.1007/s00339-017-0864-y

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