Atomic moments in Mn2CoAl thin films analyzed by X-ray magnetic circular dichroism

TL;DR

This study examines how annealing influences the atomic-specific magnetic moments in Mn2CoAl thin films, revealing that structural distortions primarily impact Mn atoms, as measured by X-ray magnetic circular dichroism.

Contribution

It provides new insights into the atomic-specific magnetic behavior of Mn and Co in Mn2CoAl thin films under different annealing conditions.

Findings

Structural distortion reduces Mn magnetic moments.

Mn atoms are more affected by disorder than Co.

Magnetic moments vary with annealing temperature.

Abstract

Spin gapless semiconductors are known to be strongly affected by structural disorder when grown epitaxially as thin films. The magnetic properties of Mn2CoAl thin films grown on GaAs (001) substrates are investigated here as a function of annealing. This study investigates the atomic-specific magnetic moments of Mn and Co atoms measured through X-ray magnetic circular dichroism as a function of annealing and the consequent structural ordering. The results indicate that the structural distortion mainly affects the Mn atoms as seen by the reduction of the magnetic moment from its predicted value.