46 research outputs found
Appearance of Half-Metallicity in the Quaternary Heusler Alloys
I report systematic first-principle calculations of the quaternary Heusler
alloys like Co[CrMn]Al, CoMn[AlSn] and
[FeCo]MnAl. I show that when the two limiting cases (x=0 or 1)
correspond to a half-metallic compound, so do the intermediate cases. Moreover
the total spin moment in scales linearly with the total number of
valence electrons (and thus with the concentration ) following the
relation , independently of the origin of the extra valence
electrons, confirming the Slater-Pauling behavior of the normal Heusler alloys.
Finally I discuss in all cases the trends in the atomic projected DOSs and in
the atomic spin moments.Comment: 4 pages, 3 figures, 2 Table
Geometric, electronic, and magnetic structure of CoFeSi: Curie temperature and magnetic moment measurements and calculations
In this work a simple concept was used for a systematic search for new
materials with high spin polarization. It is based on two semi-empirical
models. Firstly, the Slater-Pauling rule was used for estimation of the
magnetic moment. This model is well supported by electronic structure
calculations. The second model was found particularly for Co based Heusler
compounds when comparing their magnetic properties. It turned out that these
compounds exhibit seemingly a linear dependence of the Curie temperature as
function of the magnetic moment. Stimulated by these models, CoFeSi was
revisited. The compound was investigated in detail concerning its geometrical
and magnetic structure by means of X-ray diffraction, X-ray absorption and
M\"o\ss bauer spectroscopies as well as high and low temperature magnetometry.
The measurements revealed that it is, currently, the material with the highest
magnetic moment () and Curie-temperature (1100K) in the classes of
Heusler compounds as well as half-metallic ferromagnets. The experimental
findings are supported by detailed electronic structure calculations
Design of magnetic materials: CoCrFeAl
Doped Heusler compounds CoCrFeAl with varying Cr to Fe
ratio were investigated experimentally and theoretically. The electronic
structure of the ordered, doped Heusler compound CoCrFeAl
( was calculated using different types of band structure
calculations. The ordered compounds turned out to be ferromagnetic with small
Al magnetic moment being aligned anti-parallel to the 3d transition metal
moments. All compounds show a gap around the Fermi-energy in the minority
bands. The pure compounds exhibit an indirect minority gap, whereas the
ordered, doped compounds exhibit a direct gap. Magnetic circular dichroism
(MCD) in X-ray absorption spectra 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. The
experimentally observed reduction of the magnetic moment of Cr can be explained
by Co-Cr site-disorder. The presence of the gap in the minority bands of
CoCrAl can be attributed to the occurrence of pure Co and mixed CrAl
(001)-planes in the structure. It is retained in structures with
different order of the CrAl planes but vanishes in the -structure with
alternating CoCr and CoAl planes.Comment: corrected author lis
Half-metallicity and Slater-Pauling behavior in the ferromagnetic Heusler alloys
Introductory chapter for the book "Halfmetallic Alloys - Fundamentals and
Applications" to be published in the series Springer Lecture Notes on Physics,
P. H. Dederichs and I. Galanakis (eds). It contains a review of the theoretical
work on the half-metallic Heusler alloys.Comment: Introductory chapter for the book "Halfmetallic Alloys - Fundamentals
and Applications" to be published in the series Springer Lecture Notes on
Physics, P. H. Dederichs and I. Galanakis (eds
Stability of ferromagnetism against doping in half-metallic alloys
We use a rigid band model to simulate doping in half-metallic NiMnSb and CoMnSb semi-Heusler alloys. Using first-principles calculations we calculate the intrasublattice exchange constants and the Curie temperature for these alloys as a function of the shift of the Fermi level and compare them also with the case of half-metallic CrAs and CrSe zinc-blende alloys. We show for all four compounds that the interactions between Cr-Cr(Mn-Mn) nearest neighbors are sufficient to explain the behavior of the Curie temperature. The interplay between the ferromagnetic RKKY-like and the antiferromagnetic superexchange interactions depends strongly on the details of the density of states around the minority-spin gap and thus it is found to be alloy-dependent. (C) 2011 American Institute of Physics. [doi:10.1063/1.3592168
High temperature magnetisation distribution in nickel
The distribution of the magnetisation in nickel metal has been studied as a function of temperature
in the range 292 to 725Â K using polarised neutron scattering complemented by measurements of the
bulk magnetisation. The results have been analysed using the model of Mook [1] in terms of a
localised 3d moment with cubic anisotropy superposed on a diffuse magnetisation of reverse polarity.
The anisotropy of the form factor seems to show less variation with temperature than that found in
previous work. The bulk magnetisation measurements indicate a Curie temperature of 628Â K and
combined with the observed temperature variation of the 111 magnetic structure factor suggest that
the diffuse negative magnetisation disappears at the Curie temperature