First Principles Study of Surface States and Tetragonal Distortion in Half Metals

Magnetic materials have been an increasingly popular area of research over the past decade. Half-metallic materials, in particular, are of specific interest due to their high degree of spin-polarization. One application of these materials that is of interest is spintronics. Electronics utilize the electric charge of electrons, while spintronics utilizes the spin of these electrons instead. Half-metals are very promising for this application, as they generally hold their magnetic properties up to high temperatures, and are relatively cheap compared to other metals. The following research has two goals for two different half metals. Firstly, identify the so called ‘surface properties’ of Ti2MnAl0.5Sn0.5,. Second, determine the crystal structure of Mn2PtSn