Ferromagnetic structures in Mn2CoGa and Mn2CoAl doped by Co, Cu, V, and Ti

TL;DR

This study investigates how doping Mn2CoGa and Mn2CoAl Heusler alloys with transition metals affects their magnetic structures and properties through experiments and calculations.

Contribution

It identifies new local ferromagnetic structures and their impact on magnetization, revealing the roles of different dopants in tuning magnetic properties.

Findings

Co-Mn-Co structure increases magnetization by 6.18 μB/atom

Non-magnetic Cu can enhance magnetization

V doping results in a large ferromagnetic moment of about 1.0 μB

Abstract

The structure and magnetic properties in doped Heusler alloys of Mn2CoGa and Mn2CoAl have been investigated by experiments and calculations. The main group elements of Ga and Al are substituted by the magnetic or non-magnetic transition metals, Co, Cu, V, and Ti in the alloy systems. Three kinds of local ferromagnetic structures, Co-Mn-Co, Mn-Co-Mn and Mn-Co-V, have been found. They embed in the native ferrimagnetic matrix and increase the magnetization with different increments. The Co-Mn-Co ferromagnetic structure shows the largest increment of 6.18{\mu}B /atom. In addition, interesting results for non-magnetic Cu increasing the magnetization and the V atom having a large ferromagnetic moment of about 1.0{\mu}B have been obtained. The exchange interaction energy can be increased by the newly added Co and depleted by supporting a ferromagnetic coupling in other substitution cases, and showing the variation of the TC. Our calculation of electronic structure verifies the strong d-d hybridization when the three ferromagnetic structures are achieved. It has also been found that the covalent effect from the Ga and Al determines the generation of the local ferromagnetic structure and the tolerance for dopant content.