A new diluted magnetic semiconductor: The half-metallic ferromagnet CoTi(1-x)FexSb

TL;DR

This paper demonstrates that doping the semi-conducting Half-Heusler compound CoTiSb with Fe induces half-metallic ferromagnetism, revealing a new diluted magnetic semiconductor with potential spintronic applications.

Contribution

It shows that Fe doping up to 10% in CoTiSb maintains its crystal structure and induces ferromagnetism, a novel approach to creating diluted magnetic semiconductors.

Findings

Fe doping up to 10% preserves crystal structure

Magnetic moment of 0.32 μB per unit cell at 5K

Fe doping induces ferromagnetism in CoTiSb

Abstract

Half-Heusler compounds with 18 valence electrons are semi-conducting. It will be shown that doping with electrons results in half-metallic ferromagnets, similar to the case of diluted semi-conductors. CoTiSb is known to be a semi-conducting Half-Heusler compound. Doping by Fe is expected to result in ferromagnetic order. It was found that Ti can be replaced by up to about 10% Fe while its crystal structure still remains C1b, which was proved by X-ray powder diffraction. SQUID magnetometry revealed a magnetic moment of 0.32 mB per unit cell at 5K.