Leibniz-Institut für Festkörper- und Werksto forschung Dresden Institut für Theoretische Festkörperphysik Spin Density Wave in Chromium

The magnetic ground state of chromium displays an incommensurate spin density wave with a period of about 21 atomic double layers. Recent electronic structure calculations for Cr found an antiferromagnetic ground state at the experimental lattice constant. We have used the full-potential localorbital code FPLO, which has allowed us a high accuracy of the total energy in LSDA. We have been able to rule out the in uence of insu cient k point sampling. Further, a lattice distortion has been applied to simulate the effects of the concomitant strain wave (SW). We have found no in uence of the SW onto the total energy. The results are compared with experimental and theoretical data in the literature.