An Ab Initio Study of All-Heusler Heterostructures: The case of Ultrathin Multilayers

An ab initio study of the structural, electronic, and magnetic properties of Co 2 MnSi/Co 2 FeAl , Co 2 MnAl/Mn 2 CoAl , and Co 2 TiAl /(CoV)TiAl ultrathin multilayers is presented using the Vienna Ab initio Simulation Package (VASP) within the framework of density functional theory. Atoms in the multilayers are relaxed along the axis parallel to the growth direction. The electronic and magnetic properties of the multilayers are found to combine the properties of the corresponding bulk parent compounds. Moreover, all three multilayers are half-metallic magnets with integer values of their total spin magnetic moments in mu (B). The findings are expected to trigger further interest in the study of all-Heusler heterostructures.

Automated summary

An ab initio study was conducted on the structural, electronic, and magnetic properties of Co2MnSi/Co2FeAl, Co2MnAl/Mn2CoAl, and Co2TiAl/(CoV)TiAl ultrathin multilayers using density functional theory. The multilayers were found to be half-metallic magnets with integer values of their total spin magnetic moments, combining the properties of the corresponding bulk parent compounds. These findings are expected to spark further interest in the study of all-Heusler heterostructures.