Competing magnetic and spin gap-less semiconducting behaviour in fully compensated ferrimagnet CrVTiAl: Theory and Experiment

Abstract

We report the structural, magnetic and transport properties of polycrystalline CrVTiAl alloy along with first principles calculations. It crystallizes in the LiMgPdSn type structure with lattice parameter 6.14 Å at room temperature. Absence of (111) peak along with the presence of a weak (200) peak indicates the antisite disorder of Al with Cr and V atoms. The magnetization measurements reveal a ferrimagnetic transition near 710 K and a coercive field of 100 Oe at 3 K. Very low moment and coercive field indicate fully compensated ferrimagnetism in the alloy. Temperature coefficient of resistivity is found to be negative, indicating a characteristic of semiconducting nature. Absence of exponential dependence of resistivity on temperature indicates a gapless/spin-gapless semiconducting behaviour. Electronic and magnetic properties of CrVTiAl for three possible crystallograpic configurations are studied theoretically. All the three configurations are found to be different forms of semiconductors. Ground state configuration is a fully compensated ferrimagnet with band gaps 0.58 eV and 0.30 eV for up and down spin bands respectively. The next higher energy configuration is also ferrimagnetic, but has spin-gapless semiconducting nature. The highest energy configuration corresponds to a non-magnetic gapless semiconductor. The energy differences among these configurations are quite small ($<$ 1 $mRy/atom$) which hints that at finite temperatures, the alloy exists in a disordered phase, which is a mixture of the three configurations. By taking into account the theoretical and the experimental findings, we conclude that CrVTiAl is a fully compensated ferrimagnet with predominantly spin gap-less semiconductor nature.

CrVTiAl, fully compensated ferrimagnet, semiconductor, spin gap-less, 7 pages, 6 figures, 1 table, Heusler alloys

References in corpus (5)

• Quantum ESPRESSO: a modular and open-source software project for quantum simulations of materials
• Completely compensated ferrimagnetism and sublattice spin crossing in the half-metallic Heusler compound Mn1.5FeV0.5Al
• Antiferromagnetic phase of the gapless semiconductor V3Al
• Synthesis of low-moment CrVTiAl: a potential room temperature spin filter
• Design of L2_1-type antiferromagnetic semiconducting full-Heusler compounds: A first principles DFT+GW study

Cited by in corpus (24)

• High throughput screening for spin-gapless semiconductors in quaternary Heusler compounds
• Spin Gapless Semiconducting Nature in Co-rich Co1+xFe1-xCrGa: Insight and Advancements
• Co-existence of spin semi-metallic and Weyl semi-metallic behavior in FeRhCrGe
• Unconventional transport behavior in the Quaternary Heusler compounds CoFeTiSn and CoFeVGa
• Prediction of half-metallicity and spin-gapless semiconducting behavior in the new series of FeCr-based quaternary Heusler alloys: an ab initio study
• Coexisting structural disorder and robust spin-polarization in half-metallic FeMnVAl
• Half-metallic ferromagnetism and Ru-induced localization in quaternary Heusler alloy CoRuMnSi
• FeRhCrSi: A new spin semimetal with room temperature spin-valve behavior
• Rare observation of spin-gapless semiconducting characteristics and related band topology of quaternary Heusler alloy CoFeMnSn
• Ab initio design of quaternary Heusler compounds for reconfigurable magnetic tunnel diodes and transistors
• Experimental realization of a high Curie temperature CoFeRuSn quaternary Heusler alloy for spintronic applications
• Electrical and magnetic properties of thin films of the spin-filter material CrVTiAl
• Structural and electronic properties of the spin-filter material CrVTiAl with disorder
• High T${}_C$ ferromagnetic inverse Heusler alloys: A comparative study of Fe${}_2$RhSi and Fe${}_2$RhGe
• Exotic rare earth-based materials for emerging spintronic technology
• Magnetic phenomena in equiatomic ternary rare earth compounds
• Low-Moment Semiconducting Properties of Quaternary Heusler Alloy CoRuTiSn
• Al${}_2$MnCu: A magnetically ordered member of the Heusler alloy family despite having a valence electron count of 24
• Half-metallicity and wandering axis ferromagnetism in Fe${}_2$Ti${}_{1-x}$Mn${}_x$Sn (0 $<x\le$ 0.3) Heusler Alloys
• Disproportionate influence of site disorder on the evolution of magnetic phases in anti-Heusler alloy Al${}_2$MnFe
• Randomness in atomic disorder and consequent squandering of spin-polarization in a ferromagnetically fragile quaternary Heusler alloy FeRuCrSi
• Observation of Griffiths-like phase in the quaternary Heusler compound NiFeTiSn
• Low magnetic moment and unconventional magneto-transport in half-Heusler alloy CoVGe
• Disorder mediated fully compensated ferrimagnetic spin-gapless semiconducting behaviour in Cr3Al Heusler alloy