Investigation of magnetism in aluminum-doped silicon carbide nanotubes

• Aluminum substitution for silicon atom is preferred.
• Magnetization depends on the aluminum substitutional site.
• Aluminum substitution at carbon site leads to spin splitting.

The effect of aluminum doping on the structural, electronic and magnetic properties of (8,0) silicon carbide nanotube (SiCNT) is investigated using spin-polarized density functional theory. It is found from the calculation of the formation energies that aluminum substitution for silicon atom is preferred. Our results show that the magnetization depends on the substitutional site, aluminum substitution at silicon site does not introduce any spin-polarization, whereas the aluminum substitution for carbon atom yields a spin polarized, almost dispersionless ππ band within the original band gap.