• Journal of Magnetics
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• v.11 no.1
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• pp.8-11
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• 2006

Recently half-metallic full-Heusler alloy films have attracted significant interests for spintronics devices. As these alloys have been known to have a high spin polarization, very large TMR ratio is expected in magnetic tunnel junctions. Among these alloys, $Co_2MnSi$ full-Heusler alloy with a high spin polarization and a high Curie temperature is considered a good candidate as an electrode material for spintronic devices. In this study, the magnetic and structural properties of $Co_2MnSi$ Heusler alloy films were investigated. TMR characteristics of magnetic tunnel junctions with a $Co_2MnSi/SiO_2/CoFe$ structure were studied. A maximum MR ratio of 39% with $SiO_2$ substrates and 27% with MgO(100) substrates were obtained. The lower MR ratio than expectation is considered due to off-stoichiometry and atomic disorder of $Co_2MnSi$ electrode together with oxidation of the electrode layer.

• Journal of Magnetics
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• v.13 no.4
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• pp.115-119
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• 2008

The authors predicted that $Co_2HfSi$, a $Co_2$-based full Heusler alloy, is being a half-metallic ferromagnet by first-principles calculations using the all electron full-potential linearized augmented plane wave method which adopts the generalized gradient approximation. The integer value of the calculated total magnetic moment of 2.00 ${\mu}_B$ per formula unit and a spin gap of 0.69 eV in spin down state confirmed the half-metallicity of bulk $Co_2HfSi$. For the $Co_2HfSi$(001) surface, we considered two possible surface terminations, namely, Co terminated and HfSi terminated surfaces. It was found that half-metallicity was retained at the HfSi-terminated surface but not at the Co-terminated surface. The magnetic moment of surface Co atoms in the Co-terminated surface was slightly lower than that of Co atoms in deep inner-layers, whereas the magnetic moments of Hf and Si atoms at the HfSi-terminated surface were almost same as those in deep inner-layers.

• Journal of the Korean Magnetics Society
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• v.18 no.6
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• pp.201-205
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• 2008

In order to investigate the origin of the band gap in the half-metallic Heusler alloy, $Co_2MnSi$, through the electronic structure calculation, we have calculated the electronic structures for the compounds consisted of parts of Heusler structures, i.e. zinc-blende CoMn, half-Heusler CoMnSi, and artificial $Co_2Mn$, using the full-potential first-principles band calculation method. By investigating the band hybridization and energy gap for the calculated density of states for these compounds, we found that the the origin of the band gap is not consistent with the explanation discussed by Galanakis et al. We have also discussed the magnetism for these compounds by the calculated number of majority- and minority-spin electrons.

• Journal of Magnetics
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• v.12 no.3
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• pp.97-102
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• 2007

We have investigated the electronic structures and magnetism of a full Heusler alloy $Co_2CrGa(001)$ surface by using the all-electron full-potential linearized augmented plane wave (FLAPW) method within the generalized gradient approximation (GGA). We considered two types of different terminations: the Co-terminated (Co-Term) and the CrGa-terminated (CrGa-Term) surfaces. From the calculated layer-projected density of states (LDOS), we found that the surface of the CrGa-Term shows nearly half-metallic character while that of the Co-Term is far from the half-metallic. For the Co-Term, the surface Co atom moves down to the bulk region by $0.05{\AA}A$, while the subsurface Cr and Ga atoms move up to the surface layer by 0.05 and $0.01{\AA}$, respectively. For the CrGa-Term, there is a large inward relaxation of the surface Ga atom $(0.07{\AA})$, but the relaxation of the surface Cr atom is very small $(0.01{\AA})$. The relaxations affect not much to the overall shapes of DOS for both terminations, but make the surface states of the surface Cr and Ga atoms for the CrGa-Term shift to higher energy that enhances the nearly half-metallic character of the CrGa-Term. The magnetic moments of the surface $Cr(2.98{\mu}_B)$ in the CrGa-Term and the surface $Co(1.17{\mu}_B)$ in the Co-Term were much increased compared to those of the inner-layers $(1.79\;and\;0.77{\mu}_B)$, respectively, while that of the subsurface Cr atom in the Co-Term was decreased to $1.19{\mu}_B$.

• Journal of the Korean Magnetics Society
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• v.26 no.6
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• pp.185-189
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• 2016

By employing photoemission spectroscopy (PES) and soft X-ray absorption spectroscopy (XAS), the electronic structure of the candidate half-metallic antiferromagnet of $Mn_3Ga$ Heusler compound has been investigated. We have studied two ball-milled $Mn_3Ga$ powder samples, one after annealing and the other without annealing, respectively. Based on the Mn 2p XAS study, we have found that Mn ions are nearly divalent in $Mn_3Ga$ and that the Mn ions having the locally octahedral symmetry and those having the locally tetrahedral symmetry are both present in $Mn_3Ga$. We have found relatively good agreement between the measured valence-band PES spectrum of $Mn_3Ga$ and the calculated density of states, which is in agreement with the half-metallic electronic structure of $Mn_3Ga$.