The electronic structure, optical and x-ray absorption spectra, angle dependence of the cyclotron masses and extremal cross sections of the Fermi surface, phonon spectra, electron-phonon Eliashberg and transport spectral functions, temperature depend
ence of electrical resistivity of the MB2 (M=Ti and Zr) diborides were investigated from first principles using the full potential linear muffin-tin orbital method. The calculations of the dynamic matrix were carried out within the framework of the linear response theory. A good agreement with experimental data of optical and x-ray absorption spectra, phonon spectra, electron-phonon spectral functions, electrical resistivity, cyclotron masses and extremal cross sections of the Fermi surface was achieved.
The electronic origin of the huge magnetostructural effect in layered Fe-As compounds is elucidated using LiFeAs as a prototype. The crucial feature of these materials is the strong covalent bonding between Fe and As, which tends to suppress the exch
ange splitting. The bonding-antibonding splitting is very sensitive to the distance between Fe and As nuclei. We argue that the fragile interplay between bonding and magnetism is universal for this family of compounds. The exchange interaction is analyzed in real space, along with its correlation with covalency and doping. The range of interaction and itinerancy increase as the Fe-As distance is decreased. Superexchange makes a large antiferromagnetic contribution to the nearest-neighbor coupling, which develops large anisotropy when the local moment is not too small. This anisotropy is very sensitive to doping.
The density functional non-interacting susceptibility has been analyzed in different phases of CaFe2As2 and compared with similar data for pure d-metals. The conditions for the no local moment itinerant state with large frustrations are found for the
collapsed phase (corresponding to superconducting phase). This itineracy determines the instability versus the incommensurate magnetic order for the narrow region of wave vectors. For the ambient pressure phase, the local moments on Fe atoms with much less frustrated antiferromagnetic interactions are stabilized and a magnetic short or long range order for all wave vectors is developed.
Inelastic neutron scattering measurements on the low energy spin waves in CaFe2As2 show that the magnetic exchange interactions in the Fe layers are exceptionally large and similar to the cuprates. However, the exchange between layers is ~10% of the
coupling in the layers and the magnetism is more appropriately categorized as anisotropic three-dimensional, in contrast to the two-dimensional cuprates. Band structure calculations of the spin dynamics and magnetic exchange interactions are in good agreement with the experimental data.
