Doping a correlated band insulator: a new route to half-metallic behavior

We demonstrate in a simple model the surprising result that turning on an on-site Coulomb interaction U in a doped band insulator leads to the formation of a half-metallic state. In the undoped system, we show that increasing U leads to a first order transition at a finite value UAF between a paramagnetic band insulator and an antiferomagnetic Mott insulator. Upon doping, the system exhibits half-metallic ferrimagnetism over a wide range of doping and interaction strengths on either side of UAF. Our results, based on dynamical mean field theory, suggest a new route to half metallicity, and will hopefully motivate searches for new materials for spintronics.