Structural and Magnetic Properties of Co-rich bct CoMn Films

Abstract

Thin-films of bct Co${}_{1-x}$Mn${}_x$ grown by molecular beam epitaxy on MgO(001) were measured to have an enhanced atomic magnetic moment of $2.52\pm 0.07$ ${\mu }_{\text{B}}/\text{atom}$ beyond the pinnacle of the Slater-Pauling curve for Fe${}_{1-x}$Co${}_x$ with a moment of $2.42$ ${\mu }_{\text{B}}/\text{atom}$. The compositional variation of the average total moment for thin-film bct Co${}_{1-x}$Mn${}_x$ alloys is in stark contrast to the historical measurements of bulk fcc Co${}_{1-x}$Mn${}_x$. These GGA calculations reveal that significant improvements of this ferromagnetic forced bct phase on MgO(001) are possible via substrate selection. For example, bct Co${}_{1-x}$Mn${}_x$ films on MgO(001) are calculated to have lower atomic moments than those on substrates with smaller lattice constants such as GaAs(001), BaTiO${}_3$(110), and SrTiO${}_3$(110) which is predicted to increase the average atomic moment up to $2.61$ ${\mu }_{\text{B}}/\text{atom}$ and lead to increased structural stability and therefore thicker film growths.

arXiv comment17 pages, 9 figures