Room-temperature ferromagnetism in alkaline-earth-metal doped AlP: First-principle calculations

Substituting alkaline-metal (AM) or alkaline-earth-metal (AEM) atom for IIIA cations in III-V semiconductor is a very common method for modulating the physical properties of host compound. Herein, we investigated the electronic and magnetic properties of AEM doped AlP using first-principle calculations. Our calculation results indicate that the Ca, Sr, and Ba doped AlP exhibit intriguing half-metal feature as well as room-temperature ferromagnetism. Moreover, the ferromagnetism in AEM doped AlP is long-ranged, which is attributed to the hole-mediated double exchange through the p-p interaction. Further, the Ca, Sr, and Ba doped AlP are possibly fabricated under P-rich condition. Therefore, we suggest that the AEM doped AlP compounds are very promising material for novel spintronic devices.