Nuclear magnetic resonance study of thin Co$_2$FeAl$_{0.5}$Si$_{0.5}$ Heusler films with varying thickness

Type, degree and evolution of structural order are important aspects for understanding and controlling the properties of highly spin polarized Heusler compounds, in particular with respect to the optimal film growth procedure. In this work, we compare the structural order and the local magnetic properties revealed by nuclear magnetic resonance (NMR) spectroscopy with the macroscopic properties of thin Co$_2$FeAl$_{0.5}$Si$_{0.5}$ Heusler films with varying thickness. A detailed analysis of the measured NMR spectra presented in this paper enables us to find a very high degree of $L2_1$ type ordering up to 81% concomitantly with excess Fe of 8 to 13% at the expense of Al and Si. We show, that the formation of certain types of order do not only depend on the thermodynamic phase diagrams as in bulk samples, but that the kinetic control may contribute to the phase formation in thin films. It is an exciting finding that Co$_2$FeAl$_{0.5}$Si$_{0.5}$ can form an almost ideal $L2_1$ structure in films though with a considerable amount of Fe-Al/Si off-stoichiometry. Moreover, the very good quality of the films as demonstrated by our NMR study suggests that the novel technique of off-axis sputtering technique used to grow the films sets stage for the optimized performance of Co$_2$FeAl$_{0.5}$Si$_{0.5}$ in spintronic devices.
Published in Phys. Rev. B