Current density functional theory of spontaneously magnetised solids

The first application of current density functional theory (CDFT) to spontaneously magnetised solids is presented. We show that non-relativistic CDFT without spin-orbit coupling does not lead to finite orbital currents. In accordance with experiment, an enhancement of the spin-orbit–induced orbital magnetic moment is found for the ferromagnets Fe and Co, while for Ni only a minor change was found compared to a plain calculation done within spin density functional theory (SDFT).