Magnetoelastic anisotropy in Heusler-type MnCoGa films

窪田 崇秀*; 高野 大地*; 小田 洋平*; Mohanty, S.*; 伊藤 啓太*; 松木 充弘*; 林田 誠弘*; Sun, M.*; 竹田 幸治; 斎藤 祐児; et al.

Physical Review Materials (Internet), 6(4), p.044405_1 - 044405_12, 2022/04

https://doi.org/10.1103/PhysRevMaterials.6.044405

This study focuses on an inverse-type Heusler alloy, MnCoGa (MCG), with a small off-stoichiometry (), showing perpendicular magnetic anisotropy (PMA). We observed a relatively large uniaxial magnetocrystalline anisotropy constant () on the order of 10 J/m at room temperature in the MCG films with a small tetragonal distortion of a few percent. X-ray magnetic circular dichroism (XMCD) was employed to get insight into the origin for the PMA. Negligible angular variation of the orbital magnetic moment evaluated using the XMCD spectra suggested a minor role of the so-called Bruno's term to . The origin of the PMA was discussed based on the second-order perturbation theory in terms of the spin-orbit coupling, and first principles calculations, claiming that the mixing of the occupied - and the unoccupied -spin states is responsible for the PMA of the MCG films.