Half-metallic ferromagnetism with low magnetic moment in zinc-blende TiBi from first-principles calculations

The structural, electronic and magnetic properties of zinc-blende TiBi are investigated by using the first-principles full-potential linearized augmented plane-wave method. It is found that zinc-blende TiBi exhibits half-metallic ferromagnetism with the energy gap of 1.39 eV in the minority-spin channel. The calculated total magnetic moment of 1.00 µ B per formula unit mainly originates from the Ti atom. We also show that the half-metallicity of zinc-blende TiBi can be maintained up to 3% compression and 5% expansion of lattice constant with respect to the equilibrium lattice, and zinc-blende TiBi is still half-metallic when the spin–orbit coupling is considered. The robust half-metallicity and low magnetic moment make zinc-blende TiBi a potential candidate for spintronic applications.