Ostanin, S. A., Ernst, A., Sandratskii, L. M., Bruno, P., Däne, M., Hughes, I. D., Staunton, J. B., Hergert, W., Mertig, I., Kudrnovsky, J.
Mn-stabilized zirconia: From imitation diamonds to a new potential high-TC ferromagnetic spintronics material
Physical Review Letters 98, (1),pp 016101/1-4 (2007)
From the basis of ab initio electronic structure calculations which include the effects of thermally excited magnetic fluctuations, we predict Mn-stabilized cubic zirconia to be ferromagnetic above 500 K. We find this material, which is well known both as an imitation diamond and as a catalyst, to be half-metallic with the majority and minority spin Mn impurity states lying in zirconia's wide gap. The Mn concentration can exceed 400%. The high-TC ferromagnetism is robust to oxygen vacancy defects and to how the Mn impurities are distributed on the Zr fcc sublattice. We propose this ceramic as a promising future spintronics material.
TH-2007-01