It was recalled that magnetite is a material having properties potentially interesting for applications in spintronics. The promising aspects were unfortunately spoiled by various structural defects which locally modified the electronic structure. Calculations were made of the density of states in the vicinity of the important defects: antiphase boundaries. The calculations were performed using the LSDA+U approximation. This approximation was suitable for studying transition metal oxides with important correlation effects between 3d electrons, as shown for perfect bulk magnetite, by comparing the density of states calculated with the LSDA, LSDA+U, and PBE0 approximations. The calculations showed that antiphase boundaries were responsible for the existence of new localised electron states (defect states) which modified the electric properties, the energy gaps and the Fe magnetic moments.

Electronic Structure Near Antiphase Boundaries in Magnetite. R.Arras, L.Calmels, B.Warot-Fonrose: Journal of Physics - Conference Series, 2010, 200[3], 032004