Compensated Ferrimagnetism in the Zero-Moment Heusler Alloy Mn3Al

Published

June 30, 2017

Author(s)

Michelle Elizabeth Jamer, Yung Jui Wang, Gregory M. Stephen, Ian J. McDonald, Alexander J Grutter, George E. Sterbinsky, Dario A. Arena, Julie A. Borchers, Brian J Kirby, Laura H. Lewis, Bernardo Barbiellini, Arun Bansil, Don Heiman

Abstract

While antiferromagnets have been proposed as components to limit stray magnetic fields in spintronics devices, their inability to be spin polarized inhibits their use. Compensated ferrimagnets are a unique solution to this dilemma since they have zero net moment, but their nonsymmetric density of states allow achievement of full spin polarization. Density functional theory predicts that Mn₃Al in the DO₃ structure should be fully compensated while retaining half-metallicity at room temperature. In this work, 50 nm Mn₃Al thin films have been synthesized using molecular beam epitaxy and annealed at various temperatures to isolate these properties. Magnetometry measurements confirmed the high Curie temperature of 600 K. Polarized neutron reflectometry (PNR) provided a determination of the low net magnetic moment, along with depth profiles of the structure and magnetization. From the PNR data, we extract a saturation magnetization of 0.11 {plus or minus} 0.02 υ_B/f.u., thereby confirming the nominal zero moment present in these thin films.

Citation

Physical Review Applied

Volume

7

Issue

6

Pub Type

Journals

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Keywords

Heuslers, low moment ferrimagnetism

Citation

, M. , , Y. , , G. , , I. , , A. , , G. , , D. , Borchers, J. , , B. , , L. , Barbiellini, B. , Bansil, A. and Heiman, D. (2017), Compensated Ferrimagnetism in the Zero-Moment Heusler Alloy Mn₃Al, Physical Review Applied, [online], https://tsapps.nist.gov/publication/get_pdf.cfm?pub_id=922843 (Accessed April 19, 2024)