Large magnetocrystalline anisotropy in tetragonally distorted Heuslers: A systematic study

Matsushita YI, Madjarova G, Dewhurst JK, Shallcross S, Felser C, Sharma S, Gross EKU (2017)

Publication Type: Journal article

Publication year: 2017

Journal

Journal of Physics D: Applied Physics IOP Publishing: Hybrid Open Access

Book Volume: 50

Article Number: 095002

Journal Issue: 9

DOI: 10.1088/1361-6463/aa5441

Abstract

With a view to the design of hard magnets without rare earths we explore the possibility of large magnetocrystalline anisotropy energies in Heusler compounds that are unstable with respect to a tetragonal distortion. We consider the Heusler compounds Fe2YZ with Y = (Ni, Co, Pt), and Co2YZ with Y = (Ni, Fe, Pt) where, in both cases, Z = (Al, Ga, Ge, In, Sn). We find that for the Co2NiZ, Co2PtZ, and Fe2PtZ families the cubic phase is always, at T = 0, unstable with respect to a tetragonal distortion, while, in contrast, for the Fe2NiZ and Fe2CoZ families this is the case for only 2 compounds - Fe2NiGe and Fe2NiSn. For all compounds in which a tetragonal distortion occurs we calculate the magnetocrystalline anisotropy energy (MAE) finding remarkably large values for the Pt containing Heuslers, but also large values for a number of the other compounds (e.g. Co2NiGa has an MAE of -2.38 MJ m-3). The tendency to a tetragonal distortion we find to be strongly correlated with a high density of states (DOS) at the Fermi level in the cubic phase. As a corollary to this fact we observe that upon doping compounds for which the cubic structure is stable such that the Fermi level enters a region of high DOS, a tetragonal distortion is induced and a correspondingly large value of the MAE is then observed.

Authors with CRIS profile

Sam Shallcross Lehrstuhl für Theoretische Festkörperphysik

Involved external institutions

Max-Planck-Institut für Mikrostrukturphysik (MSP) / Max Planck Institute for Microstructure Physics DE Germany (DE) Max-Planck-Institut für Chemische Physik fester Stoffe (MPI CPfS) / Max Planck Institute for Chemical Physics of Solids DE Germany (DE)

How to cite

APA:

Matsushita, Y.-I., Madjarova, G., Dewhurst, J.K., Shallcross, S., Felser, C., Sharma, S., & Gross, E.K.U. (2017). Large magnetocrystalline anisotropy in tetragonally distorted Heuslers: A systematic study. Journal of Physics D: Applied Physics, 50(9). https://doi.org/10.1088/1361-6463/aa5441

MLA:

Matsushita, Y-I, et al. "Large magnetocrystalline anisotropy in tetragonally distorted Heuslers: A systematic study." Journal of Physics D: Applied Physics 50.9 (2017).

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