First principles density functional calculation of magnetic moment and hyperfine fields of dilute transition metal impurities in Gd host

•Detailed study of transition metal impurities in ferromagnetic Gd has been carried out.•The trends in impurity magnetic moment are qualitatively different from Fe, Co and Ni.•The variation within each of the d-series is found to correlate with the d–d hybridization strength between the impurity and host atoms.•Experimental trend in a hyperfine field has been reproduced successfully.

We present first principles calculations of electronic structure and magnetic properties of dilute transition metal (3d, 4d and 5d) impurities in a Gd host. The calculations have been performed within the density functional theory using the full potential linearized augmented plane wave technique and the GGA+U method. The spin and orbital contributions to the magnetic moment and the hyperfine fields have been computed. We find large magnetic moments for 3d (Ti–Co), 4d (Nb–Ru) and 5d (Ta–Os) impurities with magnitudes significantly different from the values estimated from earlier mean field calculation [J. Magn. Magn. Mater. 320 (2008) e446–e449]. The exchange interaction between the impurity and host Gd moments is found to be positive for early 3d elements (Sc–V) while in all other cases an anti-ferromagnetic coupling is observed. The trends for the magnetic moment and hyperfine field of d-impurities in Gd show qualitative difference with respect to their behavior in Fe, Co and Ni. The calculated total hyperfine field, in most cases, shows excellent agreement with the experimental results. A detailed analysis of the Fermi contact hyperfine field has been made, revealing striking differences for impurities having less or more than half filled d-shell. The impurity induced perturbations in host moments and the change in the global magnetization of the unit cell have also been computed. The variation within each of the d-series is found to correlate with the d–d hybridization strength between the impurity and host atoms.