Ferrimagnetism and disorder of epitaxial Mn2-xCoxVAl Heusler compound thin films

Meinert M, Schmalhorst J-M, Reiss G, Arenholz E. Ferrimagnetism and disorder of epitaxial Mn2-xCoxVAl Heusler compound thin films. Journal of Physics D Applied Physics. 2011;44(21): 215003.The quaternary full Heusler compound Mn2-xCoxVAl with x = 1 is predicted to be a half-metallic antiferromagnet. Thin films of the quaternary compounds with x = 0-2 were prepared by dc and RF magnetron co-sputtering on heated MgO (0 0 1) substrates. The magnetic structure was examined by x-ray magnetic circular dichroism and the chemical disorder was characterized by x-ray diffraction. Ferrimagnetic coupling of V to Mn was observed for Mn2VAl (x = 0). For x = 0.5, we also found ferrimagnetic order with V and Co antiparallel to Mn. The observed reduced magnetic moments are interpreted with the help of band structure calculations in the coherent potential approximation. Mn2VAl is very sensitive to disorder involving Mn, because nearest-neighbour Mn atoms couple antiferromagnetically. Co2VAl has B2 order and has reduced magnetization. In the cases with x >= 0.9 conventional ferromagnetism was observed, closely related to the atomic disorder in these compounds