Electronic structure and magnetic order in Cu Zn(1−)O: A study GGA and GGA + U

Abstract Based on density functional theory within GGA formalism, first-principles calculations were performed in order to study the structural, electronic, and magnetic properties of Cu-doped ZnO compound with dopant concentrations x = 0.028, 0.042, 0.056, and 0.125. It was found that CuxZn(1−x)O is ferromagnetic for both the closest and farthest impurity distances, but it is more stable energetically for the closest one. For all concentrations we obtained nearly half − metallic behavior. The calculations show that two substitutional Cu atoms introduce a magnetic moment of about 2.0 μB for all dopant concentrations. The results indicate that the magnetic ground state originates from the st…