Cubic Mn 2 Ga Thin films: Crossing the spin gap with ruthenium

Abstract

Cubic Mn2Ga films with the half-Heusler C1b structure are grown on V (001) epitaxial films. The phase is a soft ferrimagnet, with Curie temperature TC = 225 K and magnetization Ms=280 kA m−1, equivalent to 1.65μB per formula. Adding ruthenium leads to an increase of TC up to 550 K in cubic Mn2RuxGa films with x = 0.33 and a collapse of the net magnetization. The anomalous Hall effect changes sign at x = 0.5, where the sign of the magnetization changes and the magnetic easy direction flips from in plane to perpendicular to the film. The Mn2Ru0.5Ga compound with a valence electron count of 21 is identified as a zero-moment ferrimagnet with high spin polarization, which shows evidence of half-metallicity.