2007/11/06 by M. I. Katsnelson, V. Yu. Irkhin, L. Chioncel +2 · 1 citation
Physics and Astronomy · #cond-mat.mtrl-sci #cond-mat.str-el
paper · pdf · doi:10.1103/revmodphys.80.315
published as Rev. Mod. Phys. 80, 315 (2008) · to be published in Reviews of Modern Physics, vol 80, issue 1
arxiv created 2007/11/06 · arxiv updated 2009/12/01
A review of new developments in theoretical and experimental electronic structure investigations of half-metallic ferromagnets (HMF) is presented. Being semiconductors for one spin projection and metals for another ones, these substances are promising magnetic materials for applications in spintronics (i.e., spin-dependent electronics). Classification of HMF by the peculiarities of their electronic structure and chemical bonding is discussed. Effects of electron-magnon interaction in HMF and their manifestations in magnetic, spectral, thermodynamic, and transport properties are considered. Especial attention is paid to appearance of non-quasiparticle states in the energy gap, which provide an instructive example of essentially many-body features in the electronic structure. State-of-art electronic calculations for correlated d-systems is discussed, and results for specific HMF (Heusler alloys, zinc-blende structure compounds, CrO2, Fe3O4) are reviewed.