Search

The magnetic Weyl semimetal Co$_3$Sn$_2$S$_2$ is extensively investigated due to its giant anomalous Hall effect (AHE).Recent studies demonstrate that the AHE can be effectively tuned by multi-electron Ni doping.To reveal the underlying mechanism of this significant manipulation,it is crucial to explore the band structure modification caused by Ni doping. Here,we study the electrodynamics of both pristine and Ni-doped Co$_{3-x}$Ni$_x$Sn$_2$S$_2$ with $x=$0, 0.11 and 0.17 by infrared spectroscopy. We find that the inverted energy gap around the Fermi level($E_{F}$) gets smaller at $x=$0.11,which is supposed to enhance the Berry curvature and therefore increase the AHE.Then $E_{F}$ moves out of this gap at $x=$0.17. Additionally,the low temperature carrier density is demonstrated to increase monotonically upon doping,which is different from previous Hall measurement results. We also observe the evidences of band broadening and exotic changes of high-energy interband transitions caused by doping.Our results provide detailed information about the band structure of Co$_{3-x}$Ni$_x$Sn$_2$S$_2$ at different doping levels,which will help to guide further studies on the chemical tuning of AHE., Comment: 7 pages,4 figures

Topological Weyl semimetals (TWSs) are exotic crystals possessing emergent relativistic Weyl fermions connected by unique surface Fermi-arcs (SFAs) in their electronic structures. To realize the TWS state, certain symmetry (such as the inversion or time reversal symmetry) must be broken, leading to a topological phase transition (TPT). Despite the great importance in understanding the formation of TWSs and their unusual properties, direct observation of such a TPT has been challenging. Here, using a recently discovered magnetic TWS Co3Sn2S2, we were able to systematically study its TPT with detailed temperature dependence of the electronic structures by angle-resolved photoemission spectroscopy. The TPT with drastic band structures evolution was clearly observed across the Curie temperature (TC = 177 K), including the disappearance of the characteristic SFAs and the recombination of the spin-split bands that leads to the annihilation of Weyl points with opposite chirality. These results not only reveal important insights on the interplay between the magnetism and band topology in TWSs, but also provide a new method to control their exotic physical properties., Comment: 15 pages, 4 figures

The spin-orbit coupling (SOC) lifts the band degeneracy that plays a vital role in the search for different topological states, such as topological insulators (TIs) and topological semimetals (TSMs). In TSMs, the SOC can partially gap a degenerate nodal line, leading to the formation of Dirac/Weyl semimetals (DSMs/WSMs). However, such SOC-induced gap structure along the nodal line in TSMs has not yet been systematically investigated experimentally. Here, we report a direct observation of such gap structure in a magnetic WSM Co3Sn2S2 using high resolution angle-resolved photoemission spectroscopy. Our results not only reveal the existence and importance of the strong SOC effect in the formation of the WSM phase in Co3Sn2S2, but also provide insights for the understanding of its exotic physical properties., Comment: 12 pages, 4 figures

The non-collinear antiferromagnetic (AFM) structure makes Mn3Sn exhibit exotic properties. At present, it has been found that both the hydrostatic pressure and the strain introduced by interstitial N atoms have a great influence on this magnetic structure. Here, the effect of the residual strain (RS) on it is investigated. AC and DC magnetic measurement results suggest that Mn3Sn without RS has the non-collinear AFM structure only in the temperature range of 285 K to 400 K; while Mn3Sn with RS has a non-coplanar AFM structure in the entire temperature range from 5 K to 400 K. Both anomalous Hall effect and topological Hall effect appears in Mn3Sn with RS, supporting the anticipated non-coplanar AFM structure. Our findings point out a method to realize the chiral non-coplanar AFM structure through the engineering, thereby providing a path for the construction of topological antiferromagnets., Comment: 18 pages, 5 figures

Weyl semimetals are crystalline solids that host emergent relativistic Weyl fermions and have characteristic surface Fermi-arcs in their electronic structure. Weyl semimetals with broken time reversal symmetry are difficult to identify unambiguously. In this work, using angle-resolved photoemission spectroscopy, we visualized the electronic structure of the ferromagnetic crystal Co3Sn2S2 and discovered its characteristic surface Fermi-arcs and linear bulk band dispersions across the Weyl points. These results establish Co3Sn2S2 as a magnetic Weyl semimetal that may serve as a platform for realizing phenomena such as chiral magnetic effects, unusually large anomalous Hall effect and quantum anomalous Hall effect., Comment: 15 pages, 4 figures

The mechanism of spontaneous exchange bias (SEB) and the dominant factor of its blocking temperature are still unclear in Heusler alloys. Here, the related investigations are performed in Mn2Ni1.5Al0.5 Heusler alloys with SEB. The results of both magnetic measurements and first-principles calculations confirmed that spin frustrated and unfrustrated antiferromagnetic (AFM) states coexist there and they have different magnetic anisotropies, which are essential for SEB. Based on a series of measurement strategies, we demonstrate that the frustrated AFM state undergoes a first-order magnetic transition to the superferromagnet (SFM) state with the help of an external magnetic field, and SFM is retained due to the first-order property of the magnetic transition. SEB originates from the interface coupling of multiple sublattices between the unfrustrated AFM state and SFM state. By analyzing the Arrott plot using the Landau model, we found that the internal field of the system dominates the blocking temperature of SEB, which paves the way for improving the blocking temperature.

A systematic investigation about the structure and magnetism of Fe75-xCr25Gax (11

Up to now, for the conventional exchange bias (EB) systems there has been one pinning phase and one pinned phase, and the pinning and pinned phases are inherent to the material and do not mutually transform into each other. Interestingly, we show here that EB is observed in a special system (Fe2O3)0.1(FeTiO3)0.9 (HI9) different from the conventional EB system. Neutron powder diffraction and magnetic measurement confirm that for HI9: i) two types of short range antiferromagnetic ordering coexist, ii) there are two pinning phases and one pinned phase, iii) the pinned phase is not intrinsic to the structure but can be dynamically produced from the pinning phase with the help of an external magnetic field. Consequently, two anomalous EB behaviors are observed: i) both the coercivity (HC) and the exchange bias field (HE) simultaneously decrease to zero at 30 K, ii) for a high cooling field (Hcool) HE decreases logarithmically with increasing Hcool. Using Arrott plots it is confirmed that the first order magnetic phase transformation (FOMPT) from the AFM Fe2+ to ferromagnetic (FM) Fe2+ and the second order magnetic phase transformation (SOMPT) for the process whereby the FM Fe2+ aligns with the external field direction coexist in HI-9. The Morin transition and FOMPT cause the anomalous EB behaviors. This work may provide fresh ideas for research into EB behavior.

The all-d-metal Mn2-based Heusler ferromagnetic shape memory alloys Mn50Ni40-xCoxTi10 (x = 8 and 9.5) are realized. With a generic comparison between d-metal Ti and main-group elements in lowering the transformation temperature, the magnetostructural martensitic transformations are established by further introducing Co to produce local ferromagnetic Mn-Co-Mn configurations. A 5-fold modulation and (3, -2) stacking of [00 10] of martensite are determined by XRD and HRTEM analysis. Based on the transformation, a large magneto-strain of 6900 ppm and a large volume change of -2.54% are observed in polycrystalline samples, which makes the all-d-metal magnetic martensitic alloys of interest for magnetic/pressure multi-field driven applications., Comment: 21 pages, 5 figs. including a supporting file

An attempt was made to tailor the magnetostructural transitions (MSTs) over a wide temperature range under the principle of isostructural alloying. A series of wide Curie-temperature windows (CTWs) with a maximal width of 377 K between 69 and 446 K were established in the Mn1-yCoyNiGe1-xSix system. Throughout the CTWs, the magnetic-field-induced metamagnetic behavior and giant magnetocaloric effects are obtained. The (Mn,Co)Ni(Ge,Si) system shows great potential as multifunctional phase-transition materials that work in a wide range covering liquid-nitrogen and above water-boiling temperatures. Moreover, general understanding to isostructural alloying and CTWs constructed in (Mn,Co)Ni(Ge,Si) as well as (Mn,Fe)Ni(Ge,Si) are provided., Comment: 18 pages, 6 figs and 1 supporting file

Theoretical and experimental characterizations of Mn2CrGa compound in regard to the possibility of phase transformation have been carried out in this work. Under a high ordering L21 structure, this compound has the potential to be a martensite phase transition material. However, experimental results show a severe disordering took place in this system, which forbids the occurring of the phase transition. This work provides important reference for the design of new phase transition materials in Heusler alloys., Comment: 12 pages, 7 figures. A related abstract has been submitted to the Joint Conference of MMM and Intermag

Spin injection efficiency based on conventional and/or half-metallic ferromagnet/semiconductor is greatly limited by the Schmidt obstacle due to conductivity mismatch, here we proposed that by replacing the metallic injectors with spin gapless semiconductors can significantly reduce the conductive mismatch to enhance spin injection efficiency. By performing first principles calculations based on superlattice structure, we have studied the representative system of Mn2CoAl/semiconductor spin injector scheme. The results showed that a high spin polarization was maintained at the interface in systems of Mn2CoAl/Fe2VAl constructed with (100) interface and Mn2CoAl/GaAs with (110) interface, and the latter is expected to possess long spin diffusion length. Inherited from the spin gapless feature of Mn2CoAl, a pronounced dip was observed around the Fermi level in the majority-spin density-of-states in both systems, suggesting fast transport of the low-density carriers., Comment: 16 pages, 4 figs. Accepted by EPL. arXiv admin note: substantial text overlap with arXiv:1411.5762

Heusler ferromagnetic shape-memory alloys (FSMAs) normally consist of transition-group d-metals and main-group p-elements. Here, we report the realization of FSMAs in Heusler phases that completely consist of d metals. By introducing the d-metal Ti into NiMn alloys, cubic B2-type Heusler phase is obtained and the martensitic transformation temperature is decreased efficiently. Strong ferromagnetism is established by further doping Co atoms into the B2-type antiferromagnetic Ni-Mn-Ti austenite. Based on the magnetic-field-induced martensitic transformations, collective multifunctional properties are observed in Ni(Co)-Mn-Ti alloys. The d metals not only facilitate the formation of B2-type Heusler phases, but also establish strong ferromagnetic coupling and offer the possibility to tune the martensitic transformation., Comment: 15 pages, 4 figs. Accepted by APL

The crystal structures, martensitic structural transitions and magnetic properties of MnCo1-xFexSi (0 <= x <= 0.50) alloys were studied by differential scanning calorimetry (DSC), x-ray powder diffraction (XRD) and magnetic measurements. In high-temperature paramagnetic state, the alloys undergo a martensitic structural transitions from the Ni2In-type hexagonal parent phase to the TiNiSi-type orthorhombic martensite. Both the martensitic transition temperature (TM) and Curie temperatures of martensite (T_C^M) decrease with increasing Fe content. The introduced Fe atoms establish ferromagnetic (FM) coupling between Fe-Mn atoms and destroy the double spiral antiferromagnetic (AFM) coupling in MnCoSi compound, resulting in a magnetic change in the martensite phase from a spiral AFM state to a FM state. For the alloys with x = 0.10, 0.15 and 0.20, a metamagnetic transition was observed in between the two magnetic states. A magnetostructural phase diagram of MnCo1-xFexSi (0 <= x <= 0.50) alloys was proposed., Comment: 18 pages, 6 figs, submitted to JMMM

The structural transitions, magnetic properties, and electronic structures of Co(Fe)-doped MnNiSi compounds are investigated by x-ray powder diffraction (XRD), differential scanning calorimetry (DSC), magnetic measurements, and first-principles calculations. Results indicate that all samples undergo a martensitic transition from the Ni2In-type parent phase to TiNiSi-type orthorhombic phase at high temperatures. The substitution of Co(Fe) for Mn in Mn1-xCoxNiSi (x = 0.2, 0.3, 0.4) and Mn1-yFeyNiSi (y = 0.26, 0.30, 0.36, 0.46, 0.55) samples decreases the structural transition temperature (Tt) and Curie temperature of martensite (TCM). The martensite phases show a typical ferromagnetic behavior with saturation field (HS) being basically unchanged with increasing Co(Fe) content, while the saturation magnetization (MS) shows a decreasing tendency. The theoretically calculated moments are in good agreement with the experimentally measured results. The orbital hybridizations between different 3d elements are analyzed from the distribution of density of states., Comment: 13 pages, 5 figs. Accepted by JAP

Spin injection efficiency based on conventional ferromagnet (or half-metallic ferromagnet) /semiconductor is greatly limited by the Schmidt obstacle due to conductivity mismatch, here we proposed that by replacing the metallic injectors with spin gapless semiconductors can significantly reduce the conductive mismatch while conserve high spin polarization. By performing first principles calculations based on superlattice structure, we have studied the representative system of Mn2CoAl/semiconductor spin injector scheme. The results showed that high spin polarization were maintained at the interface in systems of Mn2CoAl/Fe2VAl constructed with (100) interface and Mn2CoAl/GaAs with (110) interface, and the latter is expected to possess long spin diffusion length. Inherited from the spin gapless feature of Mn2CoAl, a pronounced dip was observed around the Fermi level in the majority-spin DOS in both systems, suggesting fast transport of the low-density carriers., Comment: 7 pages, 4 figs, submitted

A coupling of the first-order paramagnetic-to-induced-ferromagnetic martensitic and the second-order antiferromagnetic-to-ferromagnetic metamagnetic transitions was found in MnNi0.8Fe0.2Ge alloy. Based on the coupling, a magneto-volume effect driven by the martensitic transition and a table-like magnetocaloric effect generated by the successive magnetic phase transitions arise collectively. By using the magneto-volume effect, the internal pressure stress in the volume-expansion martensitic transition was determined at 350 MPa. The magnetocaloric effect, with a wide working temperature range of 26 K around room temperature, shows a small hysteresis loss (5 J/kg) and a large net refrigerant capacity (157 J/kg)., Comment: 13 pages, 4 figs., accepted by APL

Spin gapless semiconductors are interesting novel class of materials by embracing both magnetism and semiconducting. Its potential application in future spintronics requires realization in thin film form. In this letter, we report a successful growth of spin gapless Mn2CoAl films on thermally oxidized Si substrates by magnetron sputtering deposition. The films deposited at 673K are well oriented to (001) direction and display a uniform-crystalline surface. Magnetotransport measurements on the oriented films reveal a semiconducting-like resistivity, small anomalous Hall conductivity and linear magnetoresistance (MR) representative of the transport signatures of spin gapless semiconductors. The magnetic properties of the films have also been investigated and compared to that of bulk Mn2CoAl, with small discrepancy induced by the composition deviation., Comment: 13 pages, 5 figs. Accepted by APL

The electronic structure, magnetism and phase stability of Pt2-xMn1+xGa(x=0, 0.25, 0.5, 0.75, 1) alloys are studied by first-principle calculations. The calculations reveal that a potential magnetic martensitic transformation can be expected in all the series. In addition, a large magnetic-field-induced strain is likely to appear in Pt2-xMn1+xGa(x=0, 0.25, 0.75, 1) alloys. The electronic structure calculations indicate that the tetragonal phase is stabilized upon the distortion because of the pseudogap formation at the Fermi Level. The magnetic structure is also investigated and the total magnetic moment of the tetragonal phase is a little larger than that of the cubic austenite phase in all the series.

In this paper, by first principle calculations, we investigate systematically the band topology of a new half-Heusler family with composition of I(A)-III(A)-IV(A). The results clearly show that many of the I-III-IV half-Heusler compounds are in fact promising to be topological insulator candidates. The characteristic feature of these new topological insulators is the naturally strong band inversion strength (up to -2eV) without containing heavy elements. Moreover, we found that both the band inversion strength and the topological insulating gap can be tailored through strain engineering, and therefore would be grown epitaxially in the form of films, and useful in spintronics and other applications., Comment: 17 pages, 4 figs, submitted for publication

This work reports on the band structure and magneto-transport investigations of the inverse Heusler compound Fe2CoSi. The first-principles calculations reveal that Fe2CoSi has a very peculiar band structure with a conducting property in the majority spin channel and a nearly zero bandgap in the minority spin channel. The synthesized Fe2CoSi sample shows a high-ordered inverse Heusler structure with a magnetic moment of 4.88 {\mu}B at 5 K and a high Curie temperature of 1038 K. With increasing temperature, a crossover from positive to negative magnetoresistance (MR) is observed. Complemented with the Hall effect measurements, we suggest the intriguing crossover of MR can be ascribed to the dominant spin carriers changing from the gapless minority spin channel to the majority spin channel at Fermi level., Comment: 16 pages, 5 figures, submitted for publication

In this paper, we investigate the half-metallicity of Heusler alloys Fe2Co1-xCrxSi by first principles calculations and anisotropy magnetoresistance measurements. It is found that, with the increase of Cr content x, the Fermi level of Fe2Co1-xCrxSi moves from the top of valence band to the bottom of conduction band, and a large half-metallic band gap of 0.75 eV is obtained for x=0.75. We then successfully synthesized a series Heusler Fe2Co1-xCrxSi polycrystalline ribbon samples. The results of X-ray diffraction indicate that the Fe2Co1-xCrxSi series of samples are pure phase with a high degree of order and the saturation magnetic moment follows half-metallic Slater-Pauling rule. Except for the two end members, Fe2CoSi and Fe2CrSi, the anisotropic magnetoresistance of Fe2Co1-xCrxSi (x=0.25, 0.5, 0.75) show a negative value suggesting they are stable half-metallic ferromagnets., Comment: 15 pages, 5 figures, accepted by JMMM

We investigate the electronic structure and magnetism of half-Heusler compounds XYZ (X, Y=V, Cr, Mn, Fe, Co and Ni; Z=Al, Ga, In, Si, Ge, Sn, P, As, and Sb) using the ab initio density functional theory calculations. Nine half-metals with half-Heusler structure have been predicted with the half-metallic gap of 0.07-0.67 eV. The calculations show that the formation energies for these nine half-Heusler compounds range from -1.32 to -0.12 eV/f.u., and for CoCrSi, CoCrGe, CoFeGe, CoMnSi, CoMnGe, FeMnGe and FeMnAs, the total energy differences between the half-Heusler structure and the corresponding ground-state structure are small (0.07-0.76 eV/f.u.), thus it is expected that they would be realized in the form of thin films under metastable conditions for spintronic applications. The stability of the half-metallicity of CoCrGe and FeMnAs to the lattice distortion is also investigated in detail., Comment: 15 pages, 6 figures, 1 table

An effective scheme of isostructural alloying was applied to establish a Curie-temperature window in isostructural MnNiGe-CoNiGe system. With the simultaneous accomplishment of decreasing structural-transition temperature and converting antiferromagnetic martensite to ferromagnetic state, a 200 K Curie-temperature window was established between Curie temperatures of austenite and martensite phases. In the window, a first-order magnetostructural transition between paramagnetic austenite and ferromagnetic martensite occurs with a sharp jump in magnetization, showing a magnetic entropy change as large as -40 J kg-1 K-1 in a 50 kOe field change. This giant magnetocaloric effect enables Mn1-xCoxNiGe to become a potential magnetic refrigerant., Comment: 21 pages, 6 figures, 1 table, accepted by APL

We propose new topological insulators in hexagonal wurtzite-type binary compounds based on the first principles calculations. It is found that two compounds AgI and AuI are three-dimensional topological insulators with a naturally opened band-gap at Fermi level. From band inversion mechanism point view, this new family of topological insulators is similar with HgTe, which has s (Gamma 6) - p (Gamma 8) band inversion. Our results strongly support that the spin-orbit coupling is not an essential factor to the band inversion mechanism; on the contrary, it is mainly responsible to the formation of a global band gap for the studied topological insulators. We further theoretically explore the feasibility of tuning the topological order of the studied compounds with two types of strains. The results show that the uniaxial strain can contribute extremely drastic impacts to the band inversion behavior, which provide an effective approach to induce topological phase transition., Comment: 20 pages, 5 figures, submitted for publication

A new disordered atom configuration in Fe2CrGa alloy has been created by ball-milling method. This leads to a significant enhancement of the magnetic moment up to 3.2~3.9 {\mu}B and an increase of Curie temperature by about 200 K, compared with the arc-melt samples. Combination of first-principles calculations and experimental results reveals that Fe2CrGa alloy should crystallize in Hg2CuTi based structure with different atomic disorders for the samples prepared by different methods. It is addressed that magnetic interactions play a crucial role for the system to adopt such an atomic configuration which disobeys the empirical rule., Comment: 15 pages, 6 figures, 1 table, submitted for publication

Abundant phenomena in CoCr2-xMnxO4 (x = 0 ~ 2) samples such as magnetic compensation, magnetostriction and exchange bias effect have been observed and investigated in this work. A structure transition from cubic to tetragonal symmetry has been found in the samples with x around 1.4. It has shown that the doped Mn3+ ions initially occupy the A (Co) sites when x < 0.2, and then mainly take the B1 (Cr) sites. This behavior results in a role conversion of magnetic contributors, and thus a magnetic compensation between two competitively magnetic sublattices at the composition near x = 0.5. Furthermore, temperature compensation has also been found in the samples with x = 0.5 and 0.6, with the compensation temperature in the range of 45 ~ 75 K. The Mn-doping also changes the frustration degree and modulates the exchange interaction in this system, and thus prevents the formation of long range conical order of spins. Therefore, the magnetoelectric transition temperature at 23 K in CoCr2O4 is shifted to lower temperature with increased dopants. The magnetostriction effect in this Cobalt spinel system has been considered for the first time. The strain has a maximum value of about 240 ppm at x = 0.2 and shows the similar tendency as the compensation behaviors. Additionally, the exchange bias effect observed in the samples with x < 0.5 shows a negative value under low cooling field for x = 0.5., Comment: 15 pages, 10 figures, 1 table, submitted for publication

The Heusler alloys Fe2NiZ (Z=Al, Ga, Si and Ge) have been synthesized and investigated focusing on the phase stability and the magnetic properties. The experimental and theoretical results reveal the covalent bonding originated from p-d hybridization takes an important role in these alloys, which dominates the stability of ordered structure but leads to the decline of the band splitting. The electronic structure shows the IV group main group element (Si and Ge) provides stronger covalent effect than that of the III group element (Al and Ga). It has been found that the variations of the physical parameters, lattice constants, critical ordering temperature, magnetic moments and Curie temperature, precisely follow these covalent characters., Comment: 13 pages, 4 figures, 2 tables, submitted for publication

Using first-principles calculations, we investigate the band structures of a series of quaternary LiMgPdSn-type Heusler compounds. Our calculation results show that five compounds CoFeMnSi, CoFeCrAl, CoMnCrSi, CoFeVSi and FeMnCrSb possess unique electronic structures characterized by a half-metallic gap in one spin direction while a zero-width gap in the other spin direction showing spin gapless semiconducting behavior. We further analysis the electronic and magnetic properties of all quaternary Heusler alloys involved, and reveal a semi-empirical general rule (total valence electrons number being 26 or 28) for indentifying spin gapless semiconductors in Heusler compounds. The influences of lattice distortion and main-group element change have also been discussed., Comment: 20 pages, 5 figures, 1 supplementary file, submitted for publication

We have investigated the impact of covalent hybridization on martensitic structure and magnetic properties of Ni50Mn5+xGa35-xCu10 shape memory alloys. We found that the lattice distortion ((c-a)/a) of L10 martensite monotonously changes with the substitution of Mn for Ga atoms and shows a kink behavior at Ga(at.%)= 25 due to the weakened covalent effect between main-group and transition-metal atoms. Moreover, owing to the competition between covalence hybridization and magnetic ordering of introduced Mn atoms, the molecular magnetic moment and Curie temperature coincidently show maximums at Ga(at.%)=25 as well. These behaviors are closely associated with corresponding changes of the strength of covalent hybridization. The results therefore suggest that careful control of the concentration of main-group atoms in Heusler alloys can serve as an additional general tuning parameter for searching new multifunctional materials., Comment: 22 pages, 4 figures and 1 table, supplementary info, submitted for publication

The crystal structure and magnetoresponsive properties of Fe-doped MnCoGe alloys have been investigated using x-ray diffraction (XRD) and magnetic measurements. By alloying the Fe-containing isostructure compounds into MnCoGe, a magnetostructural transition from paramagnetic austenite to ferromagnetic martensite with large magnetization difference can be realized in a temperature window between the Curie temperatures of the austenite and martensite, resulting in magnetic-field-induced martensitic transformations and large magnetic-entropy changes. A structural and magnetic phase diagram of Fe-doped MnCoGe alloys has been proposed., Comment: 13 pages, 5 figures, submitted to JMMM

The topological band structures of the X2YZ Heusler compounds with the Hg2CuTi structure are investigated by using first-principles calculations within density functional theory. Our results clearly show that a large number of the Hg2CuTi type Heusler compounds naturally exhibit distinct band-inversion feature, which is mainly controlled by the Y-Z zinc blende sublattice. Similar to the half-Heusler family, the topological band order in Hg2CuTi type Heusler compounds is sensitive to the variation of lattice constant, and most of them possess a negative formation energy, which makes them more suitable in material growth and could easily achieve the topological insulating behavior by alloying or proper strain., Comment: 17 pages, 5 figures, submitted for publication

The structure, magnetism, magnetic compensation behavior, exchange interaction and electronic structures of Co50-xMn25Ga25+x and Co50-xMn25+xGa25 (x=0-25) alloys have been systematically investigated by both experiments and first-principles calculations. We found that all the samples exhibited body centered cubic structures with a high degree of atomic ordering. With increasing Ga content, the composition dependence of lattice parameters shows a kink point at the middle composition in Co50-xMn25Ga25+x alloys, which can be attributed to the enhanced covalent effect between the Ga and the transition metals. Furthermore, a complicated magnetic competition has been revealed in Co50-xMn25Ga25+x alloys, which causes the Curie temperature dramatically decrease and results in a magnetic moment compensation behavior. In Co50-xMn25+xGa25 alloys, however, with increasing Mn content, an additional ferrimagnetic configuration was established in the native ferromagnetic matrix, which causes the molecular moment monotonously decreases and the exchange interaction enhances gradually. The electronic structure calculations indicate that the Co50-xMn25+xGa25 alloys are likely to be in a coexistence state of the itinerant and localized magnetism. Our study will be helpful to understand the nature of magnetic ordering as well as to tune magnetic compensation and electronic properties of Heusler alloys., Comment: 41 pages, 9 figures, 3 tables, 1 supplementary file, submitted for publication

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 and Al are substituted by the magnetic or non-magnetic transition metals, Co, Cu, V, and Ti in the alloy systems. 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 TC. 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 effect from the Ga and Al determines the generation of the local ferromagnetic structure and the tolerance for dopant content., Comment: 18 pages, 8 figures, 1 table, submitted for publication

Tailoring the phase stability and magnetic structure by combining the antiferromagnetic MnNiGe martensite with ferromagnetic MnFeGe austenite, a magnetic-field-induced martensitic transformation has been achieved in MnNi1-xFexGe system. The doped Fe enables the isolated structural and magnetic transitions of MnNiGe to coincide at room temperature and also establishes ferromagnetic couplings in six-Mn-centering-one-Fe-atom clusters. The ferromagnetic clusters transit the antiferromagnetic state in martensite to a ferromagnetic state and the alloys are further induced to a stronger ferromagnetic state by external field, resulting in a large magnetization difference up to 50 emu/g across the transformation. The field-induced martensitic transformation thus experiences a multiple metamagnetization process., Comment: 15 pages, 5 figures and 1 table. Submitted for publication

It is shown that a temperature window between the Curie temperatures of martensite and austenite phases around the room temperature can be obtained by a vacancy-tuning strategy in Mn-poor Mn1-xCoGe alloys (0 <= x <= 0.050). Based on this, a martensitic transformation from paramagnetic austenite to ferromagnetic martensite with a large magnetization difference can be realized in this window. This gives rise to a magnetic-field-induced martensitic transformation and a large magnetocaloric effect in the Mn1-xCoGe system. The decrease of the transformation temperature and of the thermal hysteresis of the transformation, as well as the stable Curie temperatures of martensite and austenite, are discussed on the basis of the Mn-poor Co-vacancy structure and the corresponding valence-electron concentration., Comment: Manuscript revised. 18 pages, 6 figures and 1 table. Submitted for publication.