Heusler compounds are magnetic intermetallics with face-centered cubic crystal structure and a composition of XYZ (half-Heuslers) or X2YZ (full-Heuslers), where X and Y are transition metals and Z is in the p-block. The term derives from the name of German mining engineer and chemist Friedrich Heusler, who studied such a compound (Cu2MnAl) in 1903. [1] Many of these compounds exhibit properties relevant to spintronics, such as magnetoresistance, variations of the Hall effect, ferro-, antiferro-, and ferrimagnetism, half- and semimetallicity, semiconductivity with spin filter ability, superconductivity, topological band structure and are actively studied as thermoelectric materials. Their magnetism results from a double-exchange mechanism between neighboring magnetic ions. Manganese, which sits at the body centers of the cubic structure, was the magnetic ion in the first Heusler compound discovered. (See the Bethe–Slater curve for details of why this happens.)
Depending on the field of literature being surveyed, one might encounter the same compound referred to with different chemical formulas. An example of the most common difference is X2YZ versus XY2Z, where the labels of the two transition metals X and Y in the compound are swapped. The traditional convention X2YZ [2] arises from the interpretation of Heuslers as intermetallics and is used predominantly in literature studying magnetic applications of Heuslers compounds. The XY2Z convention on the other hand is used mostly in thermoelectric materials [3] and transparent conducting applications [4] literature where semiconducting Heuslers (most half-Heuslers are semiconductors) are used. This convention, in which the left-most element on the periodic table comes first, uses the Zintl interpretation [5] of semiconducting compounds where the chemical formula XY2Z is written in order of increasing electronegativity. In well-known compounds such as Fe2VAl which were historically thought of as metallic (semi-metallic) but were more recently shown to be small-gap semiconductors [6] one might find both styles being used. In the present article semiconducting compounds might sometimes be mentioned in the XY2Z style.
Although traditionally thought to form at compositions XYZ and X2YZ, studies published after 2015 have discovered and reliably predicted Heusler compounds with atypical compositions such as XY0.8Z and X1.5YZ. [8] [9] Besides these ternary compositions, quaternary Heusler compositions called the double Half-Heusler X2YY'Z2 [10] (e.g. Ti2FeNiSb2) and triple Half-Heusler X2X'Y3Z3 [7] (for e.g. Mg2VNi3Sb3) have also been discovered. These "off-stoichiometric" (that is, differing from the well-known XYZ and X2YZ compositions) Heuslers are mostly semiconductors in the low temperature T = 0 K limit. [11] The stable compositions and corresponding electrical properties for these compounds can be quite sensitive to temperature [12] and their order-disorder transition temperatures often occur below room-temperatures. [10] Large amounts of defects at the atomic scale in off-stoichiometric Heuslers helps them achieve very low thermal conductivities and make them favorable for thermoelectric applications. [13] [14] The X1.5YZ semiconducting composition is stabilized by the transition metal X playing a dual role (electron donor as well as acceptor) in the structure. [15]
The half-Heusler compounds have distinctive properties and high tunability which makes the class very promising as thermoelectric materials. A study has predicted that there can be as many as 481 stable half-Heusler compounds using high-throughput ab initio calculation combine with machine learning techniques. [16] The particular half-Heusler compounds of interest as thermoelectric materials (space group ) are the semiconducting ternary compounds with a general formula XYZ where X is a more electropositive transition metal (such as Ti or Zr), Y is a less electropositive transition metal (such Ni or Co), and Z is heavy main group element (such as Sn or Sb). [17] [18] This flexible range of element selection allows many different combinations to form a half-Heusler phase and enables a diverse range of material properties.
Half-Heusler thermoelectric materials have distinct advantages over many other thermoelectric materials; low toxicity, inexpensive element, robust mechanical properties, and high thermal stability make half-Heusler thermoelectrics an excellent option for mid-high temperature application. [17] [19] However, the high thermal conductivity, which is intrinsic to highly symmetric HH structure, has made HH thermoelectric generally less efficient than other classes of TE materials. Many studies have focused on improving HH thermoelectric by reducing the lattice thermal conductivity and zT > 1 has been repeatedly recorded. [19]
List of common half-Heusler compounds [20] | |
---|---|
p-type | n-type |
MFeSb (M = V, Nb, Ta) | MCoSb (M = Ti, Zr, Hf) |
ZrCoBi | MNiSn (M = Ti, Zr, Hf) |
MCoSb (M = Ti, Zr, Hf) | M0.8CoSb (M = V, Nb, Ta) |
The magnetism of the early full-Heusler compound Cu2MnAl varies considerably with heat treatment and composition. [21] It has a room-temperature saturation induction of around 8,000 gauss, which exceeds that of the element nickel (around 6100 gauss) but is smaller than that of iron (around 21500 gauss). For early studies see. [1] [22] [23] In 1934, Bradley and Rogers showed that the room-temperature ferromagnetic phase was a fully ordered structure of the L21 Strukturbericht type. [24] This has a primitive cubic lattice of copper atoms with alternate cells body-centered by manganese and aluminium. The lattice parameter is 5.95 Å. The molten alloy has a solidus temperature of about 910 °C. As it is cooled below this temperature, it transforms into disordered, solid, body-centered cubic beta-phase. Below 750 °C, a B2 ordered lattice forms with a primitive cubic copper lattice, which is body-centered by a disordered manganese-aluminium sublattice. [21] [25] Cooling below 610 °C causes further ordering of the manganese and aluminium sub-lattice to the L21 form. [21] [26] In non-stoichiometric alloys, the temperatures of ordering decrease, and the range of anealing temperatures, where the alloy does not form microprecipitates, becomes smaller than for the stoichiometric material. [27] [28] [21]
Oxley found a value of 357 °C for the Curie temperature, below which the compound becomes ferromagnetic. [29] Neutron diffraction and other techniques have shown that a magnetic moment of around 3.7 Bohr magnetons resides almost solely on the manganese atoms. [21] [30] As these atoms are 4.2 Å apart, the exchange interaction, which aligns the spins, is likely indirect and is mediated through conduction electrons or the aluminium and copper atoms. [29] [31]
Electron microscopy studies demonstrated that thermal antiphase boundaries (APBs) form during cooling through the ordering temperatures, as ordered domains nucleate at different centers within the crystal lattice and are often out of step with each other where they meet. [21] [25] The anti-phase domains grow as the alloy is annealed. There are two types of APBs corresponding to the B2 and L21 types of ordering. APBs also form between dislocations if the alloy is deformed. At the APB the manganese atoms will be closer than in the bulk of the alloy and, for non-stoichiometric alloys with an excess of copper (e.g. Cu2.2MnAl0.8), an antiferromagnetic layer forms on every thermal APB. [32] These antiferromagnetic layers completely supersede the normal magnetic domain structure and stay with the APBs if they are grown by annealing the alloy. This significantly modifies the magnetic properties of the non-stoichiometric alloy relative to the stoichiometric alloy which has a normal domain structure. Presumably this phenomenon is related to the fact that pure manganese is an antiferromagnet although it is not clear why the effect is not observed in the stoichiometric alloy. Similar effects occur at APBs in the ferromagnetic alloy MnAl at its stoichiometric composition.[ citation needed ]
Some Heusler compounds also exhibit properties of materials known as ferromagnetic shape-memory alloys. These are generally composed of nickel, manganese and gallium and can change their length by up to 10% in a magnetic field. [33]
Understanding the mechanical properties of Heusler compounds is paramount for temperature-sensitive applications (e.g. thermoelectrics) for which some sub-classes of Heusler compounds are used. However, experimental studies are rarely encountered in literature. [34] In fact, the commercialization of these compounds is limited by the material's ability to undergo intense, repetitive thermal cycling and resist cracking from vibrations. An appropriate measure for crack resistance is the material's toughness, which typically scales inversely with another important mechanical property: the mechanical strength. In this section, we highlight existing experimental and computational studies on the mechanical properties of Heusler alloys. Note that the mechanical properties of such a compositionally-diverse class of materials is expectedly dependent on the chemical composition of the alloys themselves, and therefore trends in mechanical properties are difficult to identify without a case-by-case study.
The elastic modulus values of half-Heusler alloys range from 83 to 207 GPa, whereas the bulk modulus spans a tighter range from 100 GPa in HfNiSn to 130 GPa in TiCoSb. [34] A collection of various density functional theory (DFT) calculations show that half-Heusler compounds are predicted to have a lower elastic, shear, and bulk modulus than in quaternary-, full-, and inverse-Hausler alloys. [34] DFT also predicts a decrease in elastic modulus with temperature in Ni2XAl (X=Sc, Ti, V), as well as an increase in stiffness with pressure. [35] The decrease in modulus with respect to temperature is also observed in TiNiSn, ZrNiSn, and HfNiSn, where ZrNiSn has the highest modulus and Hf has the lowest. [36] This phenomenon can be explained by the fact that the elastic modulus decreases with increasing interatomic separation: as temperature increases, the atomic vibrations also increase, resulting in a larger equilibrium interatomic separation.
The mechanical strength is also rarely studied in Heusler compounds. One study has shown that, in off-stoichiometric Ni2MnIn, the material reaches a peak strength of 475 MPa at 773 K, which drastically reduces to below 200 MPa at 973 K. [37] In another study, a polycrystalline Heusler alloy composed of the Ni-Mn-Sn ternary composition space was found to possess a peak compressive strength of about 2000 MPa with plastic deformation up to 5%. [38] However, the addition of Indium to the Ni-Mn-Sn ternary alloy not only increases the porosity of the samples, but it also reduces the compressive strength to 500 MPa. It is unclear from the study what percentage of the porosity increase from the indium addition reduces the strength. Note that this is opposite to the outcome expected from solid solution strengthening, where adding indium to the ternary system slows dislocation movement through dislocation-solute interaction and subsequently increases the material's strength.
The fracture toughness can also be tuned with composition modifications. For example, the average toughness of Ti1−x(Zr, Hf)xNiSn ranges from 1.86 MPa m1/2 to 2.16 MPa m1/2, increasing with Zr/Hf content. [36] The preparation of samples may affect the measured fracture toughness however, as elaborated by O’Connor et al. [39] In their study, samples of Ti0.5Hf0.5Co0.5Ir0.5Sb1−xSnx were prepared using three different methods: a high-temperature solid state reaction, high-energy ball milling, and a combination of both. The study found higher fracture toughness in samples prepared without a high-energy ball milling step of 2.7 MPa m1/2 to 4.1 MPa m1/2, as opposed to samples that were prepared with ball milling of 2.2 MPa m1/2 to 3.0 MPa m1/2. [36] [39] Fracture toughness is sensitive to inclusions and existing cracks in the material, so it is as expected dependent on the sample preparation.
Half-metallic ferromagnets exhibit a metallic behavior in one spin channel and an insulating behavior in the other spin channel. The first example of Heusler half-metallic ferromagnets was first investigated by de Groot et al., [40] with the case of NiMnSb. Half-metallicity leads to the full polarization of the conducting electrons. Half metallic ferromagnets are therefore promising for spintronics applications. [41]
Ferromagnetism is a property of certain materials that results in a significant, observable magnetic permeability, and in many cases, a significant magnetic coercivity, allowing the material to form a permanent magnet. Ferromagnetic materials are noticeably attracted to a magnet, which is a consequence of their substantial magnetic permeability.
Spintronics, also known as spin electronics, is the study of the intrinsic spin of the electron and its associated magnetic moment, in addition to its fundamental electronic charge, in solid-state devices. The field of spintronics concerns spin-charge coupling in metallic systems; the analogous effects in insulators fall into the field of multiferroics.
In materials that exhibit antiferromagnetism, the magnetic moments of atoms or molecules, usually related to the spins of electrons, align in a regular pattern with neighboring spins pointing in opposite directions. This is, like ferromagnetism and ferrimagnetism, a manifestation of ordered magnetism. The phenomenon of antiferromagnetism was first introduced by Lev Landau in 1933.
In physics and materials science, the Curie temperature (TC), or Curie point, is the temperature above which certain materials lose their permanent magnetic properties, which can (in most cases) be replaced by induced magnetism. The Curie temperature is named after Pierre Curie, who showed that magnetism was lost at a critical temperature.
An amorphous metal is a solid metallic material, usually an alloy, with disordered atomic-scale structure. Most metals are crystalline in their solid state, which means they have a highly ordered arrangement of atoms. Amorphous metals are non-crystalline, and have a glass-like structure. But unlike common glasses, such as window glass, which are typically electrical insulators, amorphous metals have good electrical conductivity and can show metallic luster.
Thermoelectric materials show the thermoelectric effect in a strong or convenient form.
A semimetal is a material with a small energy overlap between the bottom of the conduction band and the top of the valence band, but they do not overlap in momentum space. According to electronic band theory, solids can be classified as insulators, semiconductors, semimetals, or metals. In insulators and semiconductors the filled valence band is separated from an empty conduction band by a band gap. For insulators, the magnitude of the band gap is larger than that of a semiconductor. Because of the slight overlap between the conduction and valence bands, semimetals have no band gap and a small density of states at the Fermi level. A metal, by contrast, has an appreciable density of states at the Fermi level because the conduction band is partially filled.
Colossal magnetoresistance (CMR) is a property of some materials, mostly manganese-based perovskite oxides, that enables them to dramatically change their electrical resistance in the presence of a magnetic field. The magnetoresistance of conventional materials enables changes in resistance of up to 5%, but materials featuring CMR may demonstrate resistance changes by orders of magnitude.
Magnetic semiconductors are semiconductor materials that exhibit both ferromagnetism and useful semiconductor properties. If implemented in devices, these materials could provide a new type of control of conduction. Whereas traditional electronics are based on control of charge carriers, practical magnetic semiconductors would also allow control of quantum spin state. This would theoretically provide near-total spin polarization, which is an important property for spintronics applications, e.g. spin transistors.
A half-metal is any substance that acts as a conductor to electrons of one spin orientation, but as an insulator or semiconductor to those of the opposite orientation. Although all half-metals are ferromagnetic, most ferromagnets are not half-metals. Many of the known examples of half-metals are oxides, sulfides, or Heusler alloys. Types of half-metallic compounds theoretically predicted so far include some Heusler alloys, such as Co2FeSi, NiMnSb, and PtMnSb; some Si-containing half–Heusler alloys with Curie temperatures over 600 K, such as NiCrSi and PdCrSi; some transition-metal oxides, including rutile structured CrO2; some perovskites, such as LaMnO3 and SeMnO3; and a few more simply structured zincblende (ZB) compounds, including CrAs and superlattices. NiMnSb and CrO2 have been experimentally determined to be half-metals at very low temperatures.
Lanthanum strontium manganite (LSM or LSMO) is an oxide ceramic material with the general formula La1−xSrxMnO3, where x describes the doping level.
A magnetic alloy is a combination of various metals from the periodic table such as ferrite that exhibits magnetic properties such as ferromagnetism. Typically the alloy contains one of the three main magnetic elements : iron (Fe), nickel (Ni), or cobalt (Co). However, alloys such as Heusler alloys exhibit ferromagnetic properties without any of the preceding 3 elements, and alloys of iron and manganese such as stainless steels may be essentially nonmagnetic at room temperature. Magnetic properties of an alloy are highly dependent not only on the composition but also on heat treatment and mechanical processing.
Gallium manganese arsenide, chemical formula (Ga,Mn)As is a magnetic semiconductor. It is based on the world's second most commonly used semiconductor, gallium arsenide,, and readily compatible with existing semiconductor technologies. Differently from other dilute magnetic semiconductors, such as the majority of those based on II-VI semiconductors, it is not paramagnetic but ferromagnetic, and hence exhibits hysteretic magnetization behavior. This memory effect is of importance for the creation of persistent devices. In (Ga,Mn)As, the manganese atoms provide a magnetic moment, and each also acts as an acceptor, making it a p-type material. The presence of carriers allows the material to be used for spin-polarized currents. In contrast, many other ferromagnetic magnetic semiconductors are strongly insulating and so do not possess free carriers. (Ga,Mn)As is therefore a candidate material for spintronic devices but it is likely to remain only a testbed for basic research as its Curie temperature could only be raised up to approximately 200 K.
The term magnetic structure of a material pertains to the ordered arrangement of magnetic spins, typically within an ordered crystallographic lattice. Its study is a branch of solid-state physics.
Lanthanum manganite is an inorganic compound with the formula LaMnO3, often abbreviated as LMO. Lanthanum manganite is formed in the perovskite structure, consisting of oxygen octahedra with a central Mn atom. The cubic perovskite structure is distorted into an orthorhombic structure by a strong Jahn–Teller distortion of the oxygen octahedra.
Lead tin telluride, also referred to as PbSnTe or Pb1−xSnxTe, is a ternary alloy of lead, tin and tellurium, generally made by alloying either tin into lead telluride or lead into tin telluride. It is a IV-VI narrow band gap semiconductor material.
YbBiPt is an intermetallic material which at low temperatures exhibits an extremely high value of specific heat, which is a characteristic of heavy-fermion behavior. YbBiPt has a noncentrosymmetric cubic crystal structure; in particular it belongs to the ternary half-Heusler compounds.
Iron germanide (FeGe) is an intermetallic compound, a germanide of iron. At ambient conditions it crystallizes in three polymorphs with monoclinic, hexagonal and cubic structures. The cubic polymorph has no inversion center, it is therefore helical, with right-hand and left-handed chiralities.
Manganese monosilicide (MnSi) is an intermetallic compound, a silicide of manganese. It occurs in cosmic dust as the mineral brownleeite. MnSi has a cubic crystal lattice with no inversion center; therefore its crystal structure is helical, with right-hand and left-hand chiralities.
Mavlyanovite is a manganese-silicon mineral with formula Mn5Si3. It was named after Gani Mavlyanov, an Uzbek geologist who lived from 1910 to 1988.