First-principles study on the band structure, magnetic and elastic properties of half-metallic Cr2MnAl

Abstract

In this study, we have investigated the structural, electronic, magnetic and elastic properties of the full-Heusler [Formula: see text] alloy in the framework of density functional theory with generalized gradient approximation (GGA). The calculated results showed that [Formula: see text] was stable in ferrimagnetic configuration and crystallized in the [Formula: see text]-type structure. From the band structure and density of states calculation results, we concluded that [Formula: see text] belongs to a kind of half-metallic compound with an indirect band gap of 0.37 eV. Immediately thereafter, we have analyzed the origin of half-metallic band gap. The total magnetic moment of [Formula: see text] at the stable state is [Formula: see text] per formula unit, obeying the Slater–Pauling rule [Formula: see text]. In addition, various mechanical properties have been obtained and discussed based on the three principle elastic tensor elements [Formula: see text] and [Formula: see text] for the first time in the present work. We expect that our calculated results may trigger the application of [Formula: see text] in future spintronics field.