203 research outputs found
Properties of the quaternary half-metal-type Heusler alloy CoMnFeSi
This work reports on the bulk properties of the quaternary Heusler alloy
CoMnFeSi with the Fe concentration . All samples, which
were prepared by arc melting, exhibit long range order over the complete
range of Fe concentration. Structural and magnetic properties of
CoMnFeSi Heusler alloys were investigated by means of X-ray
diffraction, high and low temperature magnetometry, M{\"o\ss}bauer
spectroscopy, and differential scanning calorimetry. The electronic structure
was explored by means of high energy photo emission spectroscopy at about 8 keV
photon energy. This ensures true bulk sensitivity of the measurements. The
magnetization of the Fe doped Heusler alloys is in agreement with the values of
the magnetic moments expected for a Slater-Pauling like behavior of
half-metallic ferromagnets. The experimental findings are discussed on the hand
of self-consistent calculations of the electronic and magnetic structure. To
achieve good agreement with experiment, the calculations indicate that on-site
electron-electron correlation must be taken into account, even at low Fe
concentration. The present investigation focuses on searching for the
quaternary compound where the half-metallic behavior is stable against outside
influences. Overall, the results suggest that the best candidate may be found
at an iron concentration of about 50%.Comment: 26 pages, 9 figures Phys. Rev. B accepte
Evidence of surface transport and weak anti-localization in single crystal of Bi2Te2Se topological insulator
Topological insulators are known to their metallic surface states, a result
of strong-spin-orbital coupling, that show unique surface transport phenomenon.
But these surface transports are buried in presence of metallic bulk
conduction. We synthesized very high quality BiTeSe single crystals by
modified Bridgman method, that possess high bulk resistivity of
20~cm below 20~K, whereas the bulk is mostly inactive and surface
transport dominates. Temperature dependence resistivity follows the activation
law like a gap semiconductor in temperature range 20-300~K. We designed a
special measurement geometry, which aims to extract the surface transport from
the bulk. This special geometry is applied to measure the resistance and found
that BiTeSe single crystal exhibits a cross over from bulk to surface
conduction at 20~K. Simultaneously, the material also shows strong evidence of
weak anti-localization in magneto-transport due to the protection against
scattering by conducting surface states. This novel simple geometry is an easy
route to find the evidence of surface transport in topological insulators,
which are the promising materials for future spintronic applications.Comment: 6 Pages, 4 Figure
Electronic structure and spectroscopy of the quaternary Heusler alloy CoCrFeAl
Quaternary Heusler alloys CoCrFeAl with varying Cr to Fe
ratio were investigated experimentally and theoretically. The electronic
structure and spectroscopic properties were calculated using the full
relativistic Korringa-Kohn-Rostocker method with coherent potential
approximation to account for the random distribution of Cr and Fe atoms as well
as random disorder. Magnetic effects are included by the use of spin dependent
potentials in the local spin density approximation.
Magnetic circular dichroism in X-ray absorption was measured at the
edges of Co, Fe, and Cr of the pure compounds and the alloy in order to
determine element specific magnetic moments. Calculations and measurements show
an increase of the magnetic moments with increasing iron content. Resonant
(560eV - 800eV) soft X-ray as well as high resolution - high energy (keV) hard X-ray photo emission was used to probe the density of the
occupied states in CoCrFeAl.Comment: J.Phys.D_Appl.Phys. accepte
A p-type Heusler compound: Growth, structure, and properties of epitaxial thin NiYBi films on MgO(100)
Epitaxial semiconducting NiYBi thin films were directly prepared on MgO(100)
substrates by magnetron sputtering. The intensity ratio of the (200) and (400)
diffraction peaks, I(200)/I(400) = 2.93, was close to the theoretical value
(3.03). The electronic structure of NiYBi was calculated using WIEN2k and a
narrow indirect band gap of width 210 meV was found. The valence band spectra
of the films obtained by linear dichroism in hard X-ray photoelectron
spectroscopy exhibit clear structures that are in good agreement with the
calculated band structure of NiYBi
Investigation on MnGa/MgO interface for magnetic tunneling junctions
The MnGa Heusler compound and related alloys are the most promising
materials for the realization of spin-transfer-torque switching in magneto
tunneling junctions. Improved performance can be achieved by high quality
interfaces in these multilayered structured devices. In this context, the
interface between MnGa and MgO is of particular interest because of
its spin polarization properties in tunneling junctions. We performed a
chemical characterization of the MgO/MnGa junction by hard x-ray
photoelectron spectroscopy (HAXPES). The experiment indicated the formation of
Ga-O bonds at the interface and evidenced changes in the local environment of
Mn atoms in the proximity of the MgO film. In addition, we show that the
insertion of a metallic Mg-layer interfacing the MgO and Mn--Ga film strongly
suppresses the oxidation of gallium
Magnetic and structural depth profiles of Heusler alloy Co2FeAl0.5Si0.5 epitaxial films on Si(1 1 1)
The depth-resolved chemical structure and magnetic moment of Co2FeAl0.5Si0.5, thin films grown on Si(1 1 1) have been determined using x-ray and polarized neutron reflectometry. Bulk-like magnetization is retained across the majority of the film, but reduced moments are observed within 45ËšA of the surface and in a 25ËšA substrate-interface region. The reduced moment is related to compositional changes due to oxidation and diffusion, which are further quantified by elemental profiling using electron microscopy with electron energy loss spectroscopy. The accuracy of structural and magnetic depth-profiles obtained from simultaneous modeling is discussed using different approaches with different degree of constraints on the parameters. Our approach illustrates the challenges in fitting reflectometry data from these multi-component quaternary Heusler alloy thin films
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