Journal
JOURNAL OF PHYSICS-CONDENSED MATTER
Volume 33, Issue 10, Pages -Publisher
IOP PUBLISHING LTD
DOI: 10.1088/1361-648X/abd052
Keywords
perpendicular magnetic anisotropy; half-metals; Heusler alloys; spintronics
Categories
Funding
- National Science Foundation (NSF) [2003828, 2003856]
- EPSCoR
- Department of Energy (DOE) SBIR sub-award from the Euclid Beamlabs, LLC [SBIR DE-SC0020564]
- National Science Foundation [ACI-1548562]
- Scientific Data and Computing Center, a component of the Computational Science Initiative, at Brookhaven National Laboratory (BNL) [DE-SC0012704]
- Division Of Materials Research
- Direct For Mathematical & Physical Scien [2003856, 2003828] Funding Source: National Science Foundation
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In this study, magnetocrystalline anisotropy (MCA) in thin film full Heusler alloy Co2CrAl was investigated using first-principles calculations. It was found that at CrAl atomic surface termination, the material retains 100% spin-polarization and exhibits perpendicular magnetic anisotropy. This result could have implications for potential nano-device applications and further experimental studies on similar materials.
Magnetocrystalline anisotropy (MCA) is one of the key parameters investigated in spin-based electronics (spintronics), e.g. for memory applications. Here, we employ first-principles calculations to study MCA in thin film full Heusler alloy Co2CrAl. This material was studied in the past, and has been reported to exhibit half-metallic electronic structure in bulk geometry. In our recent work, we showed that it retains a 100% spin-polarization in thin-film geometry, at CrAl atomic surface termination. Here, we show that the same termination results in a perpendicular magnetic anisotropy, while Co surface termination not only destroys the half-metallicity, but also results in in-plane magnetization orientation. In addition, for films thicker than around 20 nm the contribution from magnetic shape anisotropy may become decisive, resulting in in-plane magnetization orientation. To the best of our knowledge, this is one of the first reports of half-metallic thin-film surfaces with perpendicular magnetic anisotropy. This result may be of interest for potential nano-device applications, and may stimulate a further experimental study of this and similar materials.
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