Carrier-mediated ferromagnetism in N co-doped (Zn, Mn)O-based diluted magnetic semiconductors

Mn-doped ZnO is anti-ferromagnetic spin glass state, however, it becomes half-metallic ferromagnets upon hole doping. In this Letter we report a theoretical study of (Zn, Mn)O system codoped with N, and show that this codoping can change the ground state from anti-ferromagnetic to ferromagnetic. We have carried out the first-principles electronic structure calculations and report total energy to estimate whether the ferromagnetic state was stable or not. Our approach is based on the spin-polarized relativistic Korringa–Kohn–Rostoker (SPR–KKR) density functional theoretical (DFT) method, within the coherent potential approximation (CPA). Self-consistent electronic structure calculations were performed within the local density approximation, using the Vosko–Wilk–Nusair parameterization of the exchange-correlation energy functional. Our results for energy difference between ferromagnetic sate and spin glass state as well as their dependence on concentrations were presented and discussed.