Magnetic interactions and electronic structure of $$\hbox {Pt}_{2}\hbox {Mn}_{1-x}\hbox {Y}_{x} \hbox {Ga (Y = Cr and Fe)}$$ Pt 2 Mn 1 - x Y x Ga (Y = Cr and Fe) system: An ab-initio calculation

Abstract

First principles density functional theory based calculations have been carried out to predict the effects of Mn replacement by Fe and Cr on electronic as well as magnetic properties of Pt2MnGa as well as Ni2MnGa. All the materials studied here are predicted to have conventional Heusler alloy structure in their ground state and they are found to be electronically stable on the basis of their respective formation energy. The replacement of Mn by Fe leads to a ferromagnetic ground state whereas in case of Mn replacement by Cr an intra-sublattice anti-ferromagnetic configuration has been observed to have lower energy. We study the magnetic exchange interaction between the atoms for the materials with ferromagnetic and anti-ferromagnetic configurations to show the effects of Fe and Cr substitution at Mn site on the magnetic interactions of these systems. Detailed analysis of electronic structure in terms of density of states has been carried out to study the effect of substitution.