Electronic structure of Co_1–xFe_xS₂

Abstract

Abstract We present a detailed DFT‐based electronic structure calculation of Co 1– x Fe x S 2 , a model ferromagnetic system with tunable spin polarization, P . It is shown that the position of the Fermi level and the spin polarization can be controlled by x , the Fe concentration. We predict that for x = 0 the system has predominantly minority carriers corresponding to P = –75%. Upon doping to x = 0.25, the system becomes half‐metallic with majority carriers, i.e., P = 100%. The high spin polarization in a wide range of x has been essentially confirmed experimentally. (© 2006 WILEY‐VCH Verlag GmbH & Co. KGaA, Weinheim)