Abstract
Heusler compounds exhibit a wide range of different electronic ground states and are hence expected to be applicable as functional materials in novel electronic and spintronic devices. Since the growth of large and defect-free Heusler crystals is still challenging, single crystals of Fe2TiSn and Cu2MnAl were grown by the optical floating zone technique. Two positron annihilation techniques—angular correlation of annihilation radiation and Doppler broadening spectroscopy (DBS)—were applied in order to study both the electronic structure and lattice defects. Recently, we succeeded to observe clearly the anisotropy of the Fermi surface of Cu2MnAl, whereas the spectra of Fe2TiSn were disturbed by foreign phases. In order to estimate the defect concentration in different samples of Heusler compounds, the positron diffusion length was determined by DBS using a monoenergetic positron beam.
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Acknowledgments
This research project was funded by the Deutsche Forschungsgemeinschaft (DFG) within the Transregional Collaborative Research Center TRR80 “From electronic correlations to functionality” and supported by the European Commission under the 7th Framework Programme through the ‘Research Infrastructures’ action of the ‘Capacities’ Programme, Contract number: CP-CSA_INFRA-2008-1.1.1 Number 226507-NMI3. Financial support by the BMBF (Project numbers. 05KI0WOB and 05K13WO1) is gratefully acknowledged.
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Hugenschmidt, C., Bauer, A., Böni, P. et al. Quality of Heusler single crystals examined by depth-dependent positron annihilation techniques. Appl. Phys. A 119, 997–1002 (2015). https://doi.org/10.1007/s00339-015-9058-7
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DOI: https://doi.org/10.1007/s00339-015-9058-7