Electronic and magnetic behaviors of Cr and Mn (co)-doped zinc-blende SiC compound

In this study, we have investigated the electronic and magnetic characteristics of doped and co-doped 3D SiC material using the main Korringa–Kohn–Rostoker (KKR) Green’s function technique combined with coherent potential approximation (CPA). Two impurities are considered, namely, chromium (Cr) and manganese (Mn), are considered. Density of state (DOS) calculations show that pure SiC is an N-type semiconductor with a 1.3eV band-gap energy, while substituting Si with Cr/Mn leads to a metallic behavior. Electronic structure calculations also reveal no magnetic order in the pure compounds, consistent with experiments. By comparing the energies of the ferromagnetic and spin-glass states, we have showed that impurities also induce ferromagnetism compounds. Furthermore, for each concentration, the polarization is determined from the density of carriers at the Fermi level. Finally, the Curie temperature ( $$ T_{C} $$ T C ) is calculated by the mean-field approach at concentrations near the percolation threshold. In both cases of Cr/Mn dopants, the value of $$T_{C}$$ T C is found to be greater than ambient temperature. Graphic abstract