Theoretical study of magneto-electronic properties of TmCo₂ and NdCo₂ intermetallic compounds through density functional theory calculations

The physical properties of the electronic structure of TmCo₂ and NdCo₂ Laves phase compounds in the cubic structure MgCu₂ were investigated using the functional density theory (DFT) under the linearized augmented plane wave method with full potential (FP-LAPW) incorporated into the Wien2k software. In addition, the Hubbard (U) potential, was applied in studying these compounds to treat the correlation effects. The obtained lattice parameters were in good agreement with those found in the relevant literature, besides, there are not values available to make the comparison for the magnetic moments. The Hubbard parameter was applied, and has led to remarkable results for these quantities. Finally, the band structures and the state densities (DOS) of these two compounds were also calculated, where the DOS confirmed the ferromagnetic state of the TmCo₂ and NdCo₂ intermetallic binary for the two approximations.