Magnetic and electrical properties of the half-metallic ferromagnets Co2CrAl

• Published in: Physics of the solid state 2013-05, Vol.55 (5), p.977-985
• Main Authors: Kourov, N. I., Korolev, A. V., Marchenkov, V. V., Lukoyanov, A. V., Belozerova, K. A.
• Format: Article
• Language: English
• Subjects: Magnetism; Physics; Physics and Astronomy; Solid State Physics
• ISSN: 1063-7834; 1090-6460
• DOI: 10.1134/S1063783413050181

This paper presents the results of measurements of the magnetic and electrical properties of the ferromagnetic alloy Co 2 CrAl in two structural states: (i) after severe plastic deformation and (ii) after shortterm high-temperature annealing of the deformed specimens. The experiments have been performed at temperatures in the range from 2 to 900 K in magnetic fields H ≤ 50 kOe. The ferromagnetic Curie temperature T C and the paramagnetic Curie temperature Θ have been determined ( T C = 305 K and Θ = 326 K), as well as the spontaneous magnetic moment μ S and the effective magnetic moment μ eff per molecule of the alloy (μ S = 1.62 μ B and μ eff 2 = 8.2 μ B 2 ). It has been shown that the magnetic crystalline anisotropy energy of the alloy is on the order of ∼5 × 10 5 erg/g. The specific features of the electrical properties are associated with the presence of an energy gap in the electronic spectrum near the Fermi level E F and with the change in the parameters of the energy gap as a function of the temperature.