No Arabic abstract
We have studied the adsorption of NO on small Rh clusters, containing one to five atoms, using density functional theory in both spin-polarized and non-spin-polarized forms. We find that NO bonds more strongly to Rh clusters than it does to Rh(100) or Rh(111); however, it also quenches the magnetism of the clusters. This (local) effect results in reducing the magnitude of the adsorption energy, and also washes out the clear size-dependent trend observed in the non-magnetic case. Our results illustrate the competition present between the tendencies to bond and to magnetize, in small clusters.
Through comprehensive density functional calculations, the crystallographic, magnetic and electronic properties of $Na_xCoO_2$ ($x$ = 1, 0.875, 0.75, 0.625 and 0.50) were investigated. We found that all Na ions in $NaCoO_2$ and $Na_{0.875}CoO_2$ share the basal coordinates with O ions. However, as $x$ decreases, some of Na ions move within the basal plane in order to reduce the in-plane Na$-$Na electrostatic repulsion. Magnetically, there was strong tendency for type A antiferromagnetism in the $Na_{0.75}CoO_2$ system, while all other Na deficient systems had a weaker ferromagnetic tendency. The results on magnetism were in excellent agreement with the experiments.
Using ab initio methods based on density functional theory, the electronic and magnetic structure of layered hexagonal NbSe$_{2}$ is studied. In the case of single-layer NbSe$_{2}$ it is found that, for all the functionals considered, the magnetic solution is lower in energy than the non-magnetic solution. The magnetic ground-state is ferrimagnetic with a magnetic moment of 1.09 $mu_{B}$ at the Nb atoms and a magnetic moment of 0.05 $mu_{B}$, in the opposite direction, at the Se atoms. Our calculations show that single-layer NbSe$_{2}$ does not display a charge density wave instability unless a graphene layer is considered as a substrate. Then, two kinds of 3$times$3 charge density waves are found, which are observed in our STM experiments. This suggest that the driving force of charge instabilities in NbSe$_{2}$ differ in bulk and in the single-layer limit. Our work sets magnetism into play in this highly-correlated 2D material, which is crucial to understand the formation mechanisms of 2D superconductivity and charge density wave order.
The evolution of the electronic structure and magnetic properties with Co substitution for Fe in the solid solution Fe$_{1-x}$Co$_x$Ga$_3$ was studied by means of electrical resistivity, magnetization, ab-initio band structure calculations, and nuclear spin-lattice relaxation $1/T_1$ of the $^{69,71}$Ga nuclei. Temperature dependencies of the electrical resistivity reveal that the evolution from the semiconducting to the metallic state in the Fe$_{1-x}$Co$_x$Ga$_3$ system occurs at $0.025<x<0.075$. The $^{69,71}(1/T_1)$ was studied as a function of temperature in a wide temperature range of $2!-!300$ K for the concentrations $x = 0.0,$ $0.5,$ and $1.0$. In the parent semiconducting compound FeGa$_3$, the temperature dependence of the $^{69}(1/T_1)$ exhibits a huge maximum at about $T!sim!6$ K indicating the existence of in-gap states. The opposite binary compound, CoGa$_3$, demonstrates a metallic Korringa behavior with $1/T_1$ $propto T$. In Fe$_{0.5}$Co$_{0.5}$Ga$_3$, the relaxation is strongly enhanced due to spin fluctuations and follows $1/T_1propto T^{1/2}$, which is a unique feature of weakly and nearly antiferromagnetic metals. This itinerant antiferromagnetic behavior contrasts with both magnetization measurements, showing localized magnetism with a relatively low effective moment of about 0.7 $mu_B$/f.u., and ab initio band structure calculations, where a ferromagnetic state with an ordered moment of 0.5 $mu_B$/f.u. is predicted. The results are discussed in terms of the interplay betwen the localized and itinerant magnetizm including in-gap states and spin fluctuations.
We report the observation of an extreme magnetoresistance (XMR) in HoBi with a large magnetic moment from Ho f-electrons. Neutron scattering is used to determine the magnetic wave vectors across several metamagnetic (MM) transitions on the phase diagram of HoBi. Unlike other magnetic rare-earth monopnictides, the field dependence of resistivity in HoBi is non-monotonic and reveals clear signatures of every metamagnetic transition in the low-temperature and low-field regime, at T < 2 K and H < 2.3 T. The XMR appears at H > 2.3 T after all the metamagnetic transitions are complete and the system is spin-polarized by the external magnetic field. The existence of an onset field for XMR and the intimate connection between magnetism and transport in HoBi are unprecedented among the magnetic rare-earth monopnictides. Therefore, HoBi provides a unique opportunity to understand the electrical transport in magnetic XMR semimetals.
Ca3CoMnO6 is composed of CoMnO6 chains made up of face-sharing CoO6 trigonal prisms and MnO6 octahedra. The structural, magnetic, and ferroelectric properties of this compound were investigated on the basis of density functional theory calculations. Ca3CoMnO6 is found to undergo a Jahn-Teller distortion associated with the CoO6 trigonal prisms containing high-spin Co2+ (d7) ions, which removes the C3 rotational symmetry and hence uniaxial magnetism. However, the Jahn-Teller distortion is not strong enough to fully quench the orbital moment of the high-spin Co2+ ions thereby leading to an electronic state with substantial magnetic anisotropy. The Jahn-Teller distorted Ca3CoMnO6 in the magnetic ground state with up-up-down-down spin arrangement is predicted to have electric polarizations much greater than experimentally observed. Implications of the discrepancy between theory and experiment were discussed.