Nodal ring spin gapless semiconductor: New member of spintronic materials

Spin gapless semiconductors (SGSs) and nodal ring states (NRSs) have aroused great scientific interest in recent years due to their unique electronic properties and high application potential in the field of spintronics and magnetoelectronics.

Since their advent, all SGSs and NRSs have been predicted in independent materials. In this work, we proposed a novel type of material, nodal ring spin gapless semiconductor (NRSGS), which combines both states of the SGSs and NRSs.

The synthesized material Mg₂VO₄ has been detailed with band structure analysis based on first principle calculations.

Obtained results revealed that there are gapless crossings in the spin-up direction, which are from multiple topological nodal rings located exactly at the Fermi energy level. Mg₂VO₄ combines the advantages inherited from both NRSs and SGSs in terms of the innumerable gapless points along multiple nodal rings with all linear dispersions and direct contacts. In addition, Mg₂VO₄ also shows strong robustness against both the spin orbit coupling effect and strain conditions.

For the first time, we propose the concept of an NRSGS, and the first such material candidate Mg2VO4 can immediately advance corresponding experimental measurements and even facilitate real applications.