Dominant ferromagnetic coupling over antiferromagnetic in Ni doped ZnO： First-principles calculations

The low magnetic moment （MM） in diluted magnetic semiconductors （DMS） at low impurity doping levels has triggered considerable research into condensed magnetic semiconductors （CMS）.This work reports an ab-initio investigation of the electronic structures and magnetic properties of ZnO in a zinc-blende （ZB） structure doped with nickel ions. Ni-doped ZnO-based DMS and CMS exhibit a dominance of ferromagnetic coupling over antiferromagnetic. A robust increase in the magnetization has been observed as a function of Ni impurity levels. This material favors short-range magnetic interactions at the ground state, suggesting that the observed ferromagnetism is defined by the double exchange mechanism. The spin-polarized density of states （DOS） of Ni-doped ZnO characterizes it as half-metallic with a considerable energy gap for up-spin components and as metallic for-down spins. Half metallic Ni：ZnO based magnetic semiconductors with high magnetization are expected to have potential applications in spintronics.