Compensated Ferrimagnetism in the Zero-Moment Heusler Alloy Mn3Al

While antiferromagnets have been proposed as components to limit stray magnetic fields, their inability to be spin polarized inhibits their use in spintronic devices. Compensated ferrimagnets are a unique solution to this dilemma since they have zero net moment, but their nonsymmetric density of states allows the achievement of high spin polarization. Density-functional theory predicts Mn3Al in the D0(3) structure to be fully compensated and retain half-metallicity at room temperature. In this work, 50-nm Mn3Al thin films are synthesized using molecular beam epitaxy and annealed at various temperatures in order to investigate their magnetic properties. Magnetometry measurements confirm the high Curie temperature of 605 K. Polarized-neutron reflectometry (PNR) indicates a low net magnetic moment, along with depth profiles of the structure and magnetization. From the PNR data, a saturation moment of 0.11 +/- 0.04 mu B/f.u. is extracted, confirming the nominal zero moment present in these thin films.