Structural Disorder and Magnetism in the Spin-Gapless Semiconductor CoFeCrAl
Abstract
Disordered CoFeCrAl and CoFeCrSi0.5Al0.5 alloys have been investigated experimentally and by first-principle calculations. The melt-spun and annealed samples all exhibit Heusler-type superlattice peaks, but the peak intensities indicate a substantial degree of B2-type chemical disorder. Si substitution reduces the degree of this disorder. Our theoretical analysis also considers several types of antisite disorder (Fe-Co, Fe-Cr, Co-Cr) in Y-ordered CoFeCrAl and partial substitution of Si for Al. The substitution transforms the spin-gapless semiconductor CoFeCrAl into a half-metallic ferrimagnet and increases the half-metallic band gap by 0.12 eV. Compared CoFeCrAl, the moment of CoFeCrSi0.5Al0.5 is predicted to increase from 2.01 B to 2.50 B per formula unit, in good agreement with experiment.
Document Details
- Document Type
- Technical Report
- Publication Date
- Aug 24, 2016
- Accession Number
- AD1011065
Entities
People
- Andrew O’connell
- Arti Kashyap
- D. J. Sellmyer
- Parashu Kharel
- Ralph Skomski
- Renu Choudhary
- Shah R. Valloppilly
- Simeon Gilbert
- Yung Huh
- Yunlong Jin
Organizations
- Indian Institute of Technology Mandi