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Defect-Induced intrinsic magnetism in wide-gap III nitrides
Pratibha Dev1, Yu Xue, Peihong Zhang
1Department of Physics, University at Buffalo, State University of New York, Buffalo, NY 14260, USA.
Abstract:
Cation-vacancy induced intrinsic magnetism in GaN and BN is investigated by employing density-functional theory based electronic structure methods. The strong localization of defect states favors spontaneous spin polarization and local moment formation. A neutral cation vacancy in GaN or BN leads to the formation of a net moment of 3 muB with a spin-polarization energy of about 0.5 eV at the low density limit. The extended tails of defect wave functions, on the other hand, mediate surprisingly long-range magnetic interactions between the defect-induced moments. This duality of defect states suggests the existence of defect-induced or mediated collective magnetism in these otherwise nonmagnetic sp systems.
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