Design of magnetic materials: Co${}_2$Cr${}_{1-x}$Fe${}_x$Al

Abstract

Doped Heusler compounds Co${}_2$Cr${}_{1-x}$Fe${}_x$Al with varying Cr to Fe ratio $x$ were investigated experimentally and theoretically. The electronic structure of the ordered, doped Heusler compound Co${}_2$Cr${}_{1-x}$Fe${}_x$Al ($x=n/4,n=0,1,2,3,4)$ was calculated using different types of band structure calculations. The ordered compounds turned out to be ferromagnetic with small Al magnetic moment being aligned anti-parallel to the 3d transition metal moments. All compounds show a gap around the Fermi-energy in the minority bands. The pure compounds exhibit an indirect minority gap, whereas the ordered, doped compounds exhibit a direct gap. Magnetic circular dichroism (MCD) in X-ray absorption spectra was measured at the $L_{2,3}$ edges of Co, Fe, and Cr of the pure compounds and the $x=0.4$ alloy in order to determine element specific magnetic moments. Calculations and measurements show an increase of the magnetic moments with increasing iron content. The experimentally observed reduction of the magnetic moment of Cr can be explained by Co-Cr site-disorder. The presence of the gap in the minority bands of Co${}_2$CrAl can be attributed to the occurrence of pure Co${}_2$ and mixed CrAl (001)-planes in the $L{2}_1$ structure. It is retained in structures with different order of the CrAl planes but vanishes in the $X$-structure with alternating CoCr and CoAl planes.

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Cited by in corpus (16)

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• Correlation in the transition metal based Heusler compounds Co${}_2$MnSi and Co${}_2$FeSi
• Substituting the main group element in cobalt - iron based Heusler alloys: Co${}_2$FeAl${}_{1-x}$Si${}_x$
• Electronic structure and spectroscopy of the quaternary Heusler alloy Co${}_2$Cr${}_{1-x}$Fe${}_x$Al
• 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 and structural properties of Co${}_2$MnSi based Heusler compound
• Engineering the electronic, magnetic and gap-related properties of the quinternary half-metallic Heusler alloys
• Bulk Spin Polarization of Co${}_{(1-x)}$Fe${}_x$S${}_2$
• Epitaxial Co2Cr0.6Fe0.4Al thin films and magnetic tunneling junctions
• Band structure tuning of Heusler compounds revisited: Spin- and momentum-resolved electronic structure analysis of compounds with different band filling
• Hard X-ray photoelectron spectroscopy on buried, off-stoichiometric CoxMnyGez (x : z = 2 : 0.38) Heusler thin films
• Epitaxy of thin films of the Heusler compound Co2Cr0.6Fe0.4Al
• Effect of annealing on spinodally decomposed Co2CrAl grown via floating zone technique
• Spin and current transport in the robust half-metallic magnet $c$-CoFeGe