Mössbauer spectroscopic study of half-Heusler compounds

Abstract

The family of half-Heusler compounds offers a variety of half-metallic ferromagnetic materials. We have applied the Mossbauer spectroscopy to study the atomic order, local surroundings and hyperfine fields to several half-Heusler compounds. Sb-121 Mossbauer study of the compound CoMnSb revealed the presence of two nonequivalent antimony positions in the elementary cell and enabled to identify the structure. Sn-119m, Gd-155 and Au-197 Mossbauer spectroscopic studies were used to characterize the properties of ferromagnetic granular material based on the half-Heusler ferromagnet MnAuSn in the antiferromagnetic GdAuSn matrix

Heusler Compounds: Applications in Spintronics

“…MnAuSn is also a half-metallic ferromagnet, but it is not as intensively investigated as MnNiSb [25,66,67]. Mn cannot be replaced by other elements in the formal oxidation state 3+, since this leads to the formation of a crystal structure.…”

Magnetic spectroscopy and microscopy of functional materials

“…The presence of larger Z components going down a periodic column is more strongly associated with ferromagnetism, although the ternary compound can be ferromagnetic despite a total absence of nickel, iron, or cobalt. Ni atoms by polarization of the conduction electrons as suggested by Mössbauer spectroscopy [8]. X 2 MnZ compounds are often ferromagnetic with the manganese atoms interacting via and indirect exchange at an average separation of over 4Å.…”