377 research outputs found
Fundamentals of half-metallic Full-Heusler alloys
Intermetallic Heusler alloys are amongst the most attractive half-metallic
systems due to the high Curie temperatures and the structural similarity to the
binary semiconductors. In this review we present an overview of the basic
electronic and magnetic properties of the half-metallic full-Heusler alloys
like CoMnGe. Ab-initio results suggest that the electronic and magnetic
properties in these compounds are intrinsically related to the appearance of
the minority-spin gap. The total spin magnetic moment in the unit cell, ,
scales linearly with the number of the valence electrons, , such that
for the full-Heusler alloys opening the way to engineer new
half-metallic alloys with the desired magnetic properties. Moreover we present
analytical results on the disorder in CoCr(Mn)Al(Si) alloys, which is
susceptible to destroy the perfect half-metallicity of the bulk compounds and
thus degrade the performance of devices. Finally we discuss the appearance of
the half-metallic ferrimagnetism due to the creation of Cr(Mn) antisites in
these compounds and the Co-doping in MnVAl(Si) alloys which leads to the
fully-compensated half-metallic ferrimagnetism.Comment: Submitted for a book entitled "Spintronics: Materials, Applications
and Devices" to be published by Nova Publisher
Engineering the electronic, magnetic and gap-related properties of the quinternary half-metallic Heusler alloys
We review the electronic and magnetic properties of the quinternary full
Heusler alloys of the type Co[CrMn][AlSi] employing
three different approaches : (i) the coherent potential approximation (CPA),
(ii) the virtual crystal approximation (VCA), and (iii) supercell calculations
(SC). All three methods give similar results and the local environment
manifested itself only for small details of the density of states. All alloys
under study are shown to be half-metals and their total spin moments follow the
so-called Slater-Pauling behavior of the ideal half-metallic systems. We
especially concentrate on the properties related to the minority-spin band-gap.
We present the possibility to engineer the properties of these alloys by
changing the relative concentrations of the low-valent transition metal and
atoms in a continuous way. Our results show that for realistic
applications, ideal are the compounds rich in Si and Cr since they combine
large energy gaps (around 0.6 eV), robust half-metallicity with respect to
defects (the Fermi level is located near the middle of the gap) and high values
of the majority-spin density of states around the Fermi level which are needed
for large values of the perfectly spin-polarized current in spintronic devices
like spin-valves or magnetic tunnel junctions.Comment: 17 pages, 10 figure
Ferrimagnetism and antiferromagnetism in half-metallic Heusler alloys
Half-metallic Heusler alloys are among the most promising materials for
future applications in spintronic devices. Although most Heusler alloys are
ferromagnets, ferrimagnetic or antiferromagnetic (also called fully-compensated
ferrimagnetic) alloys would be more desirable for applications due to the lower
external fields. Ferrimagnetism can be either found in perfect Heusler
compounds or achieved through the creation of defects in ferromagnetic Heusler
alloys.Comment: To be considered for the proceedings of the International Conference
on Nanoscale Magnetism (ICNM 07
Ab-initio design of half-metallic fully-compensated ferrimagnets: the case of CrMnZ (Z= P, As, Sb, Bi) compounds
Electronic structure calculations from first-principles are employed to
design some new half-metallic fully-compensated ferrimagnets (or as they are
widely known half-metallic antiferromagnets) susceptible of finding
applications in spintronics. CrMnZ (Z= P, As, Sb, Bi) compounds have 24
valence electrons per unit cell and calculations show that their total spin
moment is approximately zero for a wide range of lattice constants in agreement
with the Slater-Pauling behavior for ideal half-metals. Simultaneously, the
spin magnetic moments of Cr and Mn atoms are antiparallel and the compounds are
ferrimagnets. Mean-field approximation is employed to estimate their Curie
temperature, which exceeds room temperature for the alloy with Sb. Our findings
suggest that CrMnSb is the compound of choice for further experimental
investigations. Contrary to the alloys mentioned above half-metallic
antiferromagnetism is unstable in the case of the CrFeZ (Z= Si, Ge, Sn)
alloys
Doping and disorder in the CoMnAl and CoMnGa half-metallic Heusler alloys
We expand our study on the full-Heusler compounds [I. Galanakis \textit{et
al.}, Appl. Phys. Lett. \textbf{89}, 042502 (2006)] to cover also the case of
doping and disorder in the case of CoMnAl and CoMnGa half-metallic
Heusler alloys. These alloys present a region of very small minority density of
states instead of a real gap. Electronic structure calculations reveal that
doping with Fe and Cr in the case of CoMnAl retains the half-metallicity
contrary to the CoMnGa compound. Cr impurities present an unusual behavior
and the spin moment of the Cr impurity scales almost linearly with the
concentration of Cr atoms contrary to the CoMnZ (Z= Si, Ge, Sn) where it
was almost constant. Half-metallicity is no more preserved for both CoMnAl
and CoMnGa alloys when disorder occurs and there is either excess of Mn or
atoms
Generalized Slater-Pauling rule for the inverse Heusler compounds
We present extensive first-principles calculations on the inverse
full-Heusler compounds having the chemical formula XYZ where (X = Sc, Ti,
V, Cr or Mn), (Z = Al, Si or As) and the Y ranges from Ti to Zn. Several of
these alloys are identified to be half-metallic magnets. We show that the
appearance of half-metallicity is associated in all cases to a Slater-Pauling
behavior of the total spin-magnetic moment. There are three different variants
of this rule for the inverse Heusler alloys depending on the chemical type of
the constituent transition-metal atoms. Simple arguments regarding the
hybridization of the d-orbitals of neighboring atoms can explain these rules.
We expect our results to trigger further experimental interest on this type of
half-metallic Heusler compounds.Comment: 5 pages, 3 figures, 1 tabl
Defects-driven appearance of half-metallic ferrimagnetism in Co-Mn--based Heusler alloys
Half-metallic ferromagnetic full-Heusler alloys containing Co and Mn, having
the formula CoMnZ where Z a sp element, are among the most studied Heusler
alloys due to their stable ferromagnetism and the high Curie temperatures which
they present. Using state-of-the-art electronic structure calculations we show
that when Mn atoms migrate to sites occupied in the perfect alloys by Co, these
Mn atoms have spin moments antiparallel to the other transition metal atoms.
The ferrimagnetic compounds, which result from this procedure, keep the
half-metallic character of the parent compounds and the large
exchange-splitting of the Mn impurities atoms only marginally affects the width
of the gap in the minority-spin band. The case of [CoMn]MnSi is
of particular interest since MnSi is known to crystallize in the Heusler
lattice structure of CoMnZ compounds. Robust half-metallic
ferrimagnets are highly desirable for realistic applications since they lead to
smaller energy losses due to the lower external magnetic fields created with
respect to their ferromagnetic counterparts
Effect of doping and disorder on the half-metallicity of full Heusler alloy
Heusler alloys containing Co and Mn are amongst the most heavily studied
half-metallic ferromagnets for future applications in spintronics. Using
state-of-the-art electronic structure calculations, we investigate the effect
of doping and disorder on their electronic and magnetic properties. Small
degrees of doping by substituting Fe or Cr for Mn scarcely affect the
half-metallicity. A similar effect is also achieved by mixing the sublattices
occupied by the Mn and sp atoms. Thus the half-metallicity is a robust property
of these alloys
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