Soft Ferromagnetic Properties of Half-Metallic MnCoAl Heusler Alloy Nanoparticles for Spintronics Applications

The ternary full Heusler alloy MnCoAl nanoparticles were synthesized by using co-precipitation technique. The as-prepared sample was observed for amorphous nature and further increased at various annealing temperatures (like 700 °C, 800 °C and 900 °C) in argon gas atmosphere for 5 h. X-ray diffraction studies were performed, and the pattern confirms the formation of HgCuTi-type structure of the XA or Xα disorder structure. Williamson-Hall plot (W-H plot) was used to find the uniform deformation model so as to get low value of strain-induced broadening. The presence of MnCoAl with the particle size ≈ 50 nm was obtained from high-resolution scanning electron microscopy (HR-SEM), and the elemental analysis study confirms the presence of Mn, Co, and Al. UV-Visible absorption spectrum shows the wide absorption peak at 470 nm and the estimated band gap energy value at E = 0.8 eV (from Tauc plot) for 900 °C annealed sample. Synthesized MnCoAl nanoparticles induced ferromagnetic behavior due to composition deviation and as a result displayed low coercivity of soft magnetic behavior. Half-metallic ferromagnetic Heusler alloys have a wide range of applications from medical imaging to data storage, and also it has profound spintronics applications.