First-principles study of exchange interactions of yttrium iron garnet

First-principles study of exchange interactions of yttrium iron garnet

Xie, Li Shan (Beijing Normal University)
Jin, Guang Xi (University of Science and Technology of China)
He, Lixin (University of Science and Technology of China)
Bauer, G.E. (TU Delft QN/Bauer Group; Tohoku University)
Barker, Joseph (Tohoku University)
Xia, Ke (Beijing Normal University)

2017-01-19

Yttrium iron garnet is the ubiquitous magnetic insulator used for studying pure spin currents. The exchange constants reported in the literature vary considerably between different experiments and fitting procedures. Here we calculate them from first principles. The local Coulomb correction (U-J) of density-functional theory is chosen such that the parametrized spin model reproduces the experimental Curie temperature and a large electronic band gap, ensuring an insulating phase. The magnon spectrum calculated with our parameters agrees reasonably well with that measured by neutron scattering. A residual disagreement about the frequencies of optical modes indicates the limits of the present methodology.

http://resolver.tudelft.nl/uuid:6d134d93-19e1-4159-aad3-37bbbb2c7c88

https://doi.org/10.1103/PhysRevB.95.014423

1098-0121

Physical Review B (Condensed Matter and Materials Physics), 95 (1)

Institutional Repository

journal article

© 2017 Li Shan Xie, Guang Xi Jin, Lixin He, G.E. Bauer, Joseph Barker, Ke Xia