The nature of the Heusler alloys

Abstract

The ferromagnetic manganese alloys were discovered by F. Heusler in 1898, and named after him. They contain in addition to manganesei or mangancse-copper, one more element, viz., alutninium, tin, arsenic, antimony, bismuth or boron. Of these various alloys the aluminium-manganese bronzes show by far the strongest ferromagnetism ; they have most fully been investigated for this reason, and the following considerations are, in the first instance, to be limited to this group of alloys.

Electronic, optical and thermoelectric properties of Fe2ZrP compound determined via first-principles calculations

“…[9][10][11][12][13][14][15][16][17] Generally, Heusler compounds have the stoichiometric composition XYZ or X 2 YZ and crystallize in the L2 1 structure, where X and Y are transition or rareearth metals and Z is the main group element. 18 These materials are half-metallic, where one spin channel shows metallicity, whereas the other spin channels are completely semiconducting. Because of this feature, half-metallic Heusler alloys can be considered as the most important class of spintronic materials.…”

High spin polarization in all-3d-metallic Heusler compounds: the case of Fe2CrZ and Co2CrZ (Z = Sc,Ti,V)

“…The German metallurgist Heusler, in his search for improving the conducting properties of steel, discovered in the early 20th century a new compound, Cu 2 MnAl [1,2]. During the 20th century it was found, due to the development of instruments, that Cu 2 MnAl crystallizes in a cubic f.c.c.…”

“…Upper panel: variation of the total spin magnetic moment and Curie temperature in the Co2 (Cr 1−x Ti x )(Ti 1−x Cr x )compounds as a function of the concentration x of the Cr atoms at the Ti sites. The two extremes correspond to the L2 1 and B2 lattice structures.…”

Zr-Based Heusler Compounds for Biomedical Spintronic Applications

“…Particularly, attractive classes of alloys exhibiting half-metallic properties, based on which may be developed biosensors, the new electrode materials with high spin polarization include alloys like Heusler compounds [2]. This class of materials, used in present as electrodes for magnetic tunnel junctions were discovered by Fritz Heusler, in 1903, who reported that Cu 2 MnAl alloy is ferromagnetic, even though, alone, none of constituent elements has magnetic properties [8]. These intermetallic alloys are described by two variants: the half-Heusler XYZ compounds, with C 1b crystal structure and the full-Heusler X 2 YZ variants which typically crystallize in Cu 2 MnAl (cubic L 21 )-type structure; where X is a transition metal, Y may be a rare-metal or a transition metal, and Z is a main group element.…”