Ab-initio calculation of effective exchange interactions, spin waves, and Curie temperature in L2₁- and L1₂-type local moment ferromagnets

الأصل · EN

Employing first-principles electronic structure calculations in conjunction with the frozen-magnon method we study the effective exchange interactions and spin waves in local moment ferromagnets. As prototypes we have chosen three L2₁-type full Heusler alloys Cu₂MnAl, Ni₂MnSn and Pd₂MnSn, and the L1₂-type XPt₃ compounds with X= V, Cr and Mn. We have also included CoPt₃ which is a usual ferromagnet. In all compounds due to the large spatial separation (4 Å) of the magnetic transition metal atoms, the 3d states belonging to different atoms overlap weakly and as a consequence the exchange coupling is indirect, mediated by the sp electrons. Calculated effective exchange parameters are long range and show RKKY-type oscillations. The spin-wave dispersion curves are in reasonable agreement with available experimental data. Using the calculated exchange parameters we have estimated the Curie temperatures within both the mean-field and the random-phase approximations. In local moment ferromagents deviations of the estimated Curie temperature with respect to the available experimental data occur when the ground-state electronic structure calculations overestimate the values of the spin magnetic moments as in VPt₃.