First-Principles study of magnetism and half-metallic properties of the d0 quaternary heusler alloys BaNYO (Y = K, Rb and Cs)
S. Benatmane, S. Cherid
Faculté des Sciences et techniques, Département des sciences et techniques, Université Abdelhamid Ibn Badis de Mostaganem,
27000 Mostaganem, Algérie
Laboratoire de Modélisation et Simulation en Sciences des Matériaux, Université Djillali Liabès de Sidi Bel-Abbès,
22000 Sidi Bel-Abbes, Algérie
Abstract
First-principles theory was applied to investigate the electronic,
elastic, magnetic, and half-metallic behaviors of the newly designed
quaternary Heusler compounds BaNYO (Y = K, Rb
and Cs) without 3d transition metal elements. However, elastic properties show that our
compounds are ductile and anisotropic. The calculated results show that our compounds are
half-metallic with an integer magnetic moment of 2.00 μB at the equilibrium lattice
parameter, with 100 % spin polarization around the Fermi level, which follows the famous
Slater-Pauling rule, Mtot=16-Zt, Mtot
is the total magnetic moment and Zt is the total number of
valence electrons. Based on its equilibrium and strained lattice constants, the magnetic and
half-metallic behaviors of this compound have been discussed in detail. Large half-metallic
gaps of BaNYO (Y = K, Rb and Cs) compounds of 0.95, 0.90 and 0.85 eV, respectively have
been found in our work, which is nearly larger than any previous study. Furthermore, the
calculated negative formation energy and cohesive energy indicate that these two alloys have
good chemical stability. This theoretical investigation provides further insight into the
application of BaNYO compounds as spintronic materials.