The elevated Curie temperature and half-metallicity in the ferromagnetic semiconductor La$_{x}$Eu$_{1-x}$O

Abstract

Here we study the effect of La doping in EuO thin films using SQUID magnetometry, muon spin rotation ($μ$SR), polarized neutron reflectivity (PNR), and density functional theory (DFT). The $μ$SR data shows that the La$_{0.15}$Eu$_{0.85}$O is homogeneously magnetically ordered up to its elevated $T_{\rm C}$. It is concluded that bound magnetic polaron behavior does not explain the increase in $T_{\rm C}$ and an RKKY-like interaction is consistent with the $μ$SR data. The estimation of the magnetic moment by DFT simulations concurs with the results obtained by PNR, showing a reduction of the magnetic moment per La$_{x}$Eu$_{1-x}$O for increasing lanthanum doping. This reduction of the magnetic moment is explained by the reduction of the number of Eu-4$f$ electrons present in all the magnetic interactions in EuO films. Finally, we show that an upwards shift of the Fermi energy with La or Gd doping gives rise to half-metallicity for doping levels as high as 3.2 %.