Correlations in rare-earth transition-metal permanent magnets
- Department of Physics and Astronomy and NCMN, University of Nebraska, Lincoln, Nebraska 68508 (United States)
- School of Basic Science, IIT Mandi, Mandi, Himachal Pradesh (India)
It is investigated how electron-electron correlations affect the intrinsic properties of rare-earth transition-metal magnets. Focusing on orbital moment and anisotropy, we perform model calculations for 3d-4f alloys and density-functional theory (DFT) calculations for NdCo{sub 5}. On an independent-electron level, the use of a single Slater determinant with broken spin symmetry introduces Hund's rule correlations, which govern the behavior of rare-earth ions and of alloys described by the local spin density approximation (LSDA) and LSDA + U approximations to DFT. By contrast, rare-earth ions in intermetallics involve configuration interactions between two or more Slater determinants and lead to phenomena such as spin-charge distribution. Analyzing DFT as a Legendre transformation and using Bethe's crystal-field theory, we show that the corresponding density functionals are very different from familiar LSDA-type expressions and outline the effect of spin-charge separation on the magnetocrystalline anisotropy.
- OSTI ID:
- 22410039
- Journal Information:
- Journal of Applied Physics, Journal Name: Journal of Applied Physics Journal Issue: 17 Vol. 117; ISSN JAPIAU; ISSN 0021-8979
- Country of Publication:
- United States
- Language:
- English
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