Magnetic order and magneto-transport in half-metallic ferrimagnetic MnyRuxGa thin films
Abstract
The ruthenium content of half-metallic Mn2RuxGa thin films, with a biaxially-strained inverse Heusler structure, controls the ferrimagnetism that determines their magnetic and electronic properties. An extensive study of MnyRuxGa films on MgO (100) substrates with 1.8 ≤ y ≤ 2.6 and x = 0.5, 0.7 or 0.9, including crystallographic, magnetic order, magneto-transport and spin polarisation is undertaken to map specific composition-dependent properties in this versatile ternary system. A comparison of experimental densities obtained from X-ray reflectivity with calculated densities indicates full site occupancy for all compositions, which implies chemical disorder. All moments lie on the Slater-Pauling plot with slope 1 and all except x = 0.5, y = 2.2 exhibit magnetic compensation at ~below 500~K. The coercivity near ~exceeds 10~T. Increasing the Mn or Ru content raises , but increasing Ru also decreases the spin polarisation determined by point contact Andreev reflection. Molecular field theory is used to model the temperature dependence of the net ferrimagnetic moment and three principal exchange coefficients are deduced. Marked differences in the shape of anomalous Hall and net magnetisation hysteresis loops are explained by substantial canting of the small net moment by up to 40 relative to the c-axis in zero field, which is a result of slight non-collinearity of the Mn4c sublattice moments due to competing intra-sublattice exchange interactions arising from antisite disorder and excess Mn in the unit cell. Consequences are reduced spin polarisation and an enhanced intrinsic contribution to the anomalous Hall effect. The systematic investigation of the physical properties as a function of x and y will guide the selection of compositions to meet the requirements for magnonic and spintronic MRG-based devices.