Electronic Structures and Magnetic Properties of Ni2MnIn Heusler Alloy

Abstract

A bulk Ni2MnIn alloy was prepared by using an arc-melting method and its structural, electronic, and magnetic properties were investigated. The structural analysis revealed that the prepared bulk alloy was a single phase, except for the (210) peak of the X-ray diffraction pattern, whose presence could be a consequence of a certain disorder of a B2 type. The results of the optical study revealed that the measured optical properties of the bulk alloy were rather sensitive to the quality of the sample surface. The element-specific magnetic properties were studied by using X-ray magnetic circular dichroism (XMCD). The magnetic moment evaluated from the XMCD data was about half of the total magnetic moment obtained by using a vibrating-sample magnetometer and a theoretical calculation. By considering the residual B2-type disorder found in the XRD result, it is thought that the reduced value of the magnetic moments obtained by XMCD can be ascribe to the residual disorder on the surface of the sample after the cleaving.