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The Mechanism for the Half‐Metal to Insulator Transition at the Fe 3 O 4 /ZnAl 2 O 4 Interface
Author(s) -
Jin Zhejunyu,
Li Zongxiao,
Pu Xiaohua,
Zhao Weiwei,
Ding Kaining
Publication year - 2019
Publication title -
physica status solidi (b)
Language(s) - English
Resource type - Journals
SCImago Journal Rank - 0.51
H-Index - 109
eISSN - 1521-3951
pISSN - 0370-1972
DOI - 10.1002/pssb.201800491
Subject(s) - superlattice , condensed matter physics , atomic orbital , electron , phonon , coupling (piping) , transition metal , materials science , fermi level , metal–insulator transition , physics , chemistry , metal , quantum mechanics , metallurgy , biochemistry , catalysis
The mechanism of Verwey transition remains unsolved. In this work, the gap opening at the Fe 3 O 4 /ZnAl 2 O 4 interface is discussed based on first‐principles calculations. Here, with constraint of the charge transfer, superlattices with different orbital ordering show different gaps corresponding to the different electron–acoustic phonon couplings. When electrons (near the Fermi level) are at the out‐of‐plane orbitals, the interface exhibits a wider band gap with stronger electron–acoustic phonon coupling compared to the superlattice with electrons at in‐plane orbitals. This finding unravels the link between the electron–acoustic phonon coupling and orbital ordering, which is significant to explain the mechanism for the Verwey transition.