Skip to content

Doping of Mn2VAl and Mn2VSi Heusler alloys as a route to half-metallic antiferromagnetism

I. Galanakis, K. Ozdogan, E. Sasioglu, B. Aktas

cond-mat.mtrl-sciarXiv:cond-mat/0701611

Abstract

Half-metallic antiferromagnets are the ideal materials for spintronic applications since their zero magnetization leads to lower stray fields and thus tiny energy losses. Starting from the Mn2VAl and Mn2VSi alloys we substitute Co or Fe for Mn and we show by means of first-principle electronic structure calculations that the resulting compounds are ferrimagnets. When the total number of valence electrons reaches the magic number of 24 the Fe-doped compounds are semi-metals and thus non-magnetic while the Co-doped ones show the desirable half-metallic antiferromagnetic character. The compounds are very likely to be synthesized experimentally since the parent compounds, Mn2VAl and Co2VAl, have been already grown in the Heusler L21 lattice structure.

Create a lesson