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| Main Authors: | , , , , , , , , , , , |
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| Format: | Preprint |
| Published: |
2025
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| Subjects: | |
| Online Access: | https://arxiv.org/abs/2512.10885 |
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| _version_ | 1866915917042024448 |
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| author | Philip, Reshna Elsa Vyas, Pooja Joy, Nikhil Joseph Kuila, Sandip Kumar Beniwal, Sonia Magar, Akshata Shukla, Dinesh Kumar Jana, Partha Pratim Kumar, Amit Alam, Aftab Balakrishnan, Jayakumar Manni, Soham |
| author_facet | Philip, Reshna Elsa Vyas, Pooja Joy, Nikhil Joseph Kuila, Sandip Kumar Beniwal, Sonia Magar, Akshata Shukla, Dinesh Kumar Jana, Partha Pratim Kumar, Amit Alam, Aftab Balakrishnan, Jayakumar Manni, Soham |
| contents | Spin-gapless semiconductors (SGSs) that simultaneously host fully compensated ferrimagnetism are highly sought for energy-efficient and stray-field-free spintronic technologies, yet their realization in chemically disordered systems has remained elusive. Here, we demonstrate that the binary Heusler alloy Cr3Al despite adopting a fully A2-disordered structure exhibits a rare coexistence of SGS transport and a fully compensated ferrimagnetic (FCF) ground state. Single-crystalline and polycrystalline Cr3Al samples were synthesized, and comprehensive structural analyses using single crystal XRD, synchrotron powder XRD, and neutron powder diffraction reveal complete Cr/Al site mixing. Remarkably, this chemical disorder does not disrupt magnetic order; instead, magnetization, X-ray magnetic circular dichroism (XMCD), and temperature-dependent neutron diffraction establish a robust compensated ferrimagnetic state with a vanishingly small ordered moment of 0.1(1) muB/f.u and a high Curie temperature of 773(2) K. Electrical and thermal transport measurements uncover clear SGS characteristics, including weak temperature-dependent conductivity, very low Seebeck coefficients, and electron-hole compensated transport. Hall measurements show unusual temperature-dependent carrier concentrations consistent with disorder-modified electronic states. First-principles calculations on an A2-disordered SQS structure reproduce the experimentally observed negligibly small magnetization (0.0072 muB/f.u) and reveal a vanishing spin-up band gap unambiguously supporting SGS behavior driven by chemical disorder. Our results identify Cr3Al as the first experimentally verified A2-disordered Heusler alloy exhibiting both fully compensated ferrimagnetism and spin-gapless semiconducting transport, positioning it as a robust and disorder-tolerant platform for next-generation, high-temperature spintronic devices. |
| format | Preprint |
| id |
arxiv_https___arxiv_org_abs_2512_10885 |
| institution | arXiv |
| publishDate | 2025 |
| record_format | arxiv |
| spellingShingle | Disorder mediated fully compensated ferrimagnetic spin-gapless semiconducting behaviour in Cr3Al Heusler alloy Philip, Reshna Elsa Vyas, Pooja Joy, Nikhil Joseph Kuila, Sandip Kumar Beniwal, Sonia Magar, Akshata Shukla, Dinesh Kumar Jana, Partha Pratim Kumar, Amit Alam, Aftab Balakrishnan, Jayakumar Manni, Soham Materials Science Strongly Correlated Electrons Spin-gapless semiconductors (SGSs) that simultaneously host fully compensated ferrimagnetism are highly sought for energy-efficient and stray-field-free spintronic technologies, yet their realization in chemically disordered systems has remained elusive. Here, we demonstrate that the binary Heusler alloy Cr3Al despite adopting a fully A2-disordered structure exhibits a rare coexistence of SGS transport and a fully compensated ferrimagnetic (FCF) ground state. Single-crystalline and polycrystalline Cr3Al samples were synthesized, and comprehensive structural analyses using single crystal XRD, synchrotron powder XRD, and neutron powder diffraction reveal complete Cr/Al site mixing. Remarkably, this chemical disorder does not disrupt magnetic order; instead, magnetization, X-ray magnetic circular dichroism (XMCD), and temperature-dependent neutron diffraction establish a robust compensated ferrimagnetic state with a vanishingly small ordered moment of 0.1(1) muB/f.u and a high Curie temperature of 773(2) K. Electrical and thermal transport measurements uncover clear SGS characteristics, including weak temperature-dependent conductivity, very low Seebeck coefficients, and electron-hole compensated transport. Hall measurements show unusual temperature-dependent carrier concentrations consistent with disorder-modified electronic states. First-principles calculations on an A2-disordered SQS structure reproduce the experimentally observed negligibly small magnetization (0.0072 muB/f.u) and reveal a vanishing spin-up band gap unambiguously supporting SGS behavior driven by chemical disorder. Our results identify Cr3Al as the first experimentally verified A2-disordered Heusler alloy exhibiting both fully compensated ferrimagnetism and spin-gapless semiconducting transport, positioning it as a robust and disorder-tolerant platform for next-generation, high-temperature spintronic devices. |
| title | Disorder mediated fully compensated ferrimagnetic spin-gapless semiconducting behaviour in Cr3Al Heusler alloy |
| topic | Materials Science Strongly Correlated Electrons |
| url | https://arxiv.org/abs/2512.10885 |