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

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 or Al in the systems are substituted by the magnetic or non-magnetic transition metals, Co, Cu, V, and Ti. 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 T-C. 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 bonding from the Ga and Al determines the generation of the local ferromagnetic structure and the tolerance for dopant content. (C) 2013 American Institute of Physics. [http://dx.doi.org/10.1063/1.4796097]