Near total magnetic moment compensation without reduction in T_C of Mn_2 V_0.5 Co_0.5 Z (Z=Ga,Al) Heusler compounds

Abstract

Mn_2V_1-xCo_xZ (Z=Ga,Al and x=0, 0.25, 0.5, 0.75, 1) Heusler compounds have been synthesized to investigate the effect of Co substitution at the V site on the magnetic moment and Curie temperatures of half-metallic ferrimagnets Mn_2VGa and Mn_2VAl. The Co substituted compounds show a non linear decrease in lattice parameter without altering the crystal structure of the parent compounds. The end members Mn_2VGa and Mn_2CoGa have the saturation magnetization of 1.80 {\mu}_B/f.u and 2.05 {\mu}_B/f.u respectively whereas for the Mn_2V_0.5Co_0.5Ga compound, a near total magnetic moment compensation (0.10 {\mu}_B/f.u) was observed due to the ferrimagnetic coupling of Mn with parallelly aligned V and Co. The Co substituted Mn_2VAl has also shown the similar trend with compensated magnetic moment value of 0.06 {\mu}_B/f.u for x=0.5. The Curie temperatures of the compounds including the x=0.5 composition are well above the room temperature (more than 700 K) which is in sharp contrast to the earlier reported values of 171 K for the (MnCo)VGa and 105 K for the (MnCo)VAl compounds (substitution at the Mn site). The magnetic moment compensation without significant reduction in T_C indicates that the V site substitution of Co does not weaken the magnetic interaction in Mn_2VZ (Z=Ga, Al) compounds which is in contrary to the earlier experimental reports on Mn site substitution.