3d-electron induced magnetic phase transition in half-metallic semi-Heusler alloys

Abstract

We study the effect of the non-magnetic 3\textit{d} atoms on the magnetic properties of the half-metallic (HM) semi-Heusler alloys Co${}_{1-x}$Cu${}_x$MnSb and Ni${}_{1-x}$Cu${}_x$MnSb ($0\le x\le 1$) using first-principles calculations. We determine the magnetic phase diagram of both systems at zero temperature and obtain a phase transition from a ferromagnetic to an antiferromagnetic state. For low Cu concentrations the ferromagnetic RKKY-like exchange mechanism is dominating, while the antiferromagnetic superexchange coupling becomes important for larger Cu content leading to the observed magnetic phase transition. A strong dependence of the magnetism in both systems on the position of the Fermi level within the HM gap is obtained. Obtained results are in good agreement with the available experimental data.

References in corpus (4)

• Role of the conduction electrons in mediating exchange interactions in Heusler alloys
• Influence of mixing the low-valent transition metal atoms (Y,Y${}^{\ast }$=Cr,Mn,Fe) on the properties of the quaternary Co${}_2$[Y${}_{1-x}$Y${}_x^{\ast }$]Z (Z=Al,Ga,Si,Ge,Sn) Heusler compounds
• Magnetic Phase Control in Monolayer Films by Substrate Tuning
• Engineering the electronic, magnetic and gap-related properties of the quinternary half-metallic Heusler alloys

Cited by in corpus (5)

• Crossover from antiferromagnetic to ferromagnetic ordering in semi-Heusler alloys Cu1-xNixMnSb with increasing Ni concentration
• Magnetism of mixed quaternary Heusler alloys: (Ni,T)${}_2$MnSn (T=Cu,Pd) as a case study
• Tuning the magnetic properties of half-metallic semi-Heusler alloys by sp-electron substitution: The case of AuMnSn${}_{1-x}$Sb${}_x$ quaternary alloys
• Development of half metallicity within mixed magnetic phase of Cu${}_{1-x}$Co${}_x$MnSb alloy
• Coexistence of Antiferromagnetic Cubic and Ferromagnetic Tetragonal Polymorphs in Epitaxial CuMnSb