High spin polarization of the anomalous hall current in co-based Heusler compounds
Journal
New Journal of Physics
Journal Volume
15
Date Issued
2013
Author(s)
Abstract
Based on first principles density functional calculations of the intrinsic anomalous and spin Hall conductivities, we predict that the charge Hall current in Co-based full Heusler compounds Co$_2$XZ (X = Cr and Mn; Z = Al, Si, Ga, Ge, In and Sn) except Co$_2$CrGa would be almost fully spin-polarized even although Co$_2$MnAl, Co$_2$MnGa, Co$_2$MnIn and Co$_2$MnSn do not have a half-metallic band structure. Furthermore, the ratio of the associated spin current to the charge Hall current is slightly larger than 1.0. This suggests that these Co-based Heusler compounds, especially Co$_2$MnAl, Co$_2$MnGa and Co$_2$MnIn which are found to have large anomalous and spin Hall conductivities, might be called anomalous Hall half-metals and could have valuable applications in spintronics such as spin valves as well as magnetoresistive and spin-torque driven nanodevices. These interesting findings are discussed in terms of the calculated electronic band structures, magnetic moments and also anomalous and spin Hall conductivities as a function of the Fermi level.
Type
journal article