Theoretical study of magnetic ordering of defects in diamond

Abstract

Magnetic ordering of dopants in diamond holds the prospect of exploiting diamond’s unique properties in the emerging field of spintronics. Several transition metal defects have been reported to order ferromagnetically in various semiconductors, however, low Curie temperatures and lack of other fundamental material properties have hindered practical implementation in room temperature spintronic applications. In this Thesis, we consider the energetic stability of 3d transition metal doped-diamond and its magnetic ordering properties at various lattice sites and charge states using ab initio Density Functional Theory methods. We find the majority of 3d transition metal impurities in diamond at any charge state to be energetically most stable at the divacancy site compared to substitutional or interstitial lattice sites, with the interstitial site being highly unstable (by ~8 - 10 eV compared to the divacancy site). At each lattice site and charge state, we find the formation energies of transition metals in the middle of the 3d series (Cr, Mn, Fe, Co, Ni) to be considerably lower compared to those early or late in the series. The energetic stability of transition metal impurities across the 3d series is shown to be strongly dependent on the position of the Fermi level in the diamond band gap, with the formation energies at any lattice site being lower in p-type or ntype diamond compared to intrinsic diamond. Further, we show that incorporation of isolated transition metal impurities into diamond introduces spin polarised impurity bands into the diamond band gap, while maintaining its semiconducting nature, with band gaps in both the spin-up and spin-down channels. These impurity bands are shown to originate mainly from s, p-d hybridization between carbon sp 3 orbitals with the 3d orbitals of the transition metal. In addition, the 4p orbitals contribute significantly to hybridization for transition metal atoms at the substitutional site, but not at the divacancy site. In both cases, the spin polarisation and magnetic stabilization energies are critically dependent on the lattice site and charge state of the transition metal impurity. By allowing magnetic interactions between transition metal atoms, we find that ferromagnetic ordering is likely to be achieved in divacancy Cr+2, Mn+2, Mn+1 and Co0 as well as in substitutional Fe+2 and Fe+1, indicating that transition metal-doped diamond is likely to form a diluted magnetic semiconductor which may successfully be considered for room temperature spintronic applications. In addition, these charge states correspond to p-type diamond, except for divacancy Co0, suggesting that co-doping with shallow acceptors such as B ( will result in an increase of charge concentration, which is likely to enhance mediation of ferromagnetic spin coupling. The highest magnetic stabilization energy occurs in substitutional Fe+1 (33.3 meV), which, also exhibits half metallic ferromagnetic ordering at the Fermi level, with an induced magnetic moment of 1.0 μB per ion, thus suggesting that 100 % spin polarisation may be achieved in Fe-doped diamond.