Experimental inspection of a computationally-designed NiCrMnSi Heusler alloy with high Curie temperature

Nowadays advanced magnetic tunnel junction applications demand very high tunnel magnetoresistance at room temperature, thus it is quite important to explore high Curie temperature Tc half-metallic Heusler alloys. In this article rst-principles calculation unveiled that NiCrMnSi has Tc of 1200 K comparable to that of the traditional Co2MnSi Heusler alloys, even though it does not contain Co element. In addition, we examined whether NiCrMnSi Heulser phase lms can be obtained by a magnetron sputtering on MgO substrates. The results of the structural analysis and rst-principles calculations indicated that NiCrMnSi Heusler phase is metastable. A possible route to obtain metastable NiCrMnSi Heusler alloy is to utilize appropriate templates.