Chaudhuri S, Salas D, Srihari V, Welter E, Karaman I, Bhobe P A
Department of Physics, Indian Institute of Technology Indore, Khandwa Road, Simrol, Indore, 453552, India.
Department of Materials Science and Engineering, Texas A&M University, College Station, TX, 77843, USA.
Sci Rep. 2021 Jan 12;11(1):524. doi: 10.1038/s41598-020-79895-7.
Band structure tailoring has been a great avenue to achieve the half-metallic electronic ground state in materials. Applying this approach to the full Heusler alloy FeTiSn, Cr is introduced systematically at Ti site that conforms to the chemical formula [Formula: see text]Sn. Compositions so obtained have been investigated for its electronic, magnetic, and electrical transport properties with an aim to observe the half-metallic ferromagnetic ground state, anticipated theoretically for FeCrSn. Our experimental study using synchrotron X-ray diffraction reveals that only compositions with [Formula: see text] 0.25 yield phase pure L2[Formula: see text] cubic structures. The non-magnetic ground state of FeTiSn gets dramatically affected upon inclusion of Cr giving rise to a localized magnetic moment in the background of Ruderman-Kittel-Kasuya-Yosida (RKKY) correlations. The ferromagnetic interactions begin to dominate for x = 0.25 composition. Results of its resistivity and magnetoresistance (MR) measurement point towards a half-metallic ground state. The calculation of exchange coupling parameter, [Formula: see text], and orbital projected density of states that indicate a change in hybridization between 3d and 5p orbital, support the observations made from the study of local crystal structure made using the extended X-ray absorption fine structure spectroscopy. Our findings here highlight an interesting prospect of finding half-metallicity via band structure tailoring for wide application in spintronics devices.
