Ab initio investigation of impurity ferromagnetism in the Pd1-xFex alloys: concentration and position dependence

Abstract

We present the ab initio results of the structural and magnetic properties of the Pd host matrix implanted with Fe solute atoms at various concentrations. By means of density functional theory we confirm that iron impurities are able to initialize significant magnetization of the Pd atoms, when the impurity consentation exceeds 3 at.%. Besides, we demonstrate that the imposed magnetization depends on impurity positions in the host matrix, in particular, there is a maximum of magnetization for a uniform distribution of the iron impurity.