Origin of giant moments in non-stoichiometric FeRh alloys

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Abstract
Within a tight-binding scheme, we study the local electronic structure on the nearest-neighbours of a rhodium site which has been substituted by an iron impurity in the stoichiometric FeRh compound in its antiferromagnetic phase. The replacement of the rhodium atom is described by an extended perturbation potential which includes changes in the intrasite and intersite matrix elements up to the first nearest-neighbour shell of the point defect site. Our model shows that a spin-flip on the nearest-neighbour site of the substituted atom, antiparallel to the direction of the applied field is energetically favourable. This could lead to the nesting of a giant moment as has been suggested experimentally