Study of Curie temperature, ferromagnetism and thermoelectric properties of spinels CdCr₂X₄ (X=S, Se, Te) for spintronic and energy harvesting

Spintronics is a developing field in technological advancement that manipulates the electrons’ spin to transfer and manipulate data at an exceptionally high speed. Therefore, this paper has comprehensively analyzed the electronic, ferromagnetic, and thermoelectric aspects of CdCr₂X₄ (X=S, Se, Te) spinels. The optimization screening indicates that the ferromagnetic phases exhibit a higher energy release than the antiferromagnetic phases. Thus, the investigated compounds exhibit ferromagnetic phases. Auditing band structures and spin polarization ensures ferromagnetic semiconducting behavior. The Curie temperature verifies the ferromagnetism at temperatures beyond 300 K. In addition, several aspects related to the nature of ferromagnetism are addressed. The distribution of magnetic to nonmagnetic (Cr, Cd, X) is the attribution of ferromagnetism by electrons’ spin instead of the accumulation of Cr ions. In addition, the transport factors for spin (↑) and spin (↓) are evaluated to analyze the influence of thermal factors on electron spin and energy conversion.