Ferrimagnetic half metals TaMnZ (Z = As, Sb, Bi) for thermoelectric and spintronic applications – Material computations

Abstract

Half metals possess coupling behavior of metals and semiconductors with wide heat transport and spin transport properties. This research article covers the structural, mechanical, electronic, magnetic and thermoelectric properties of the half Heusler alloys TaMnZ (Z = As, Sb, Bi). The equilibrium lattice constants and corresponding ground state energies show that the studied alloys are stable in the ferrimagnetic cubic phase. The band dispersion plots suggest that the compounds TaMnAs, TaMnSb and TaMnBi are half metals with indirect band gap having the band gap energies of 1.13 eV, 1.24 eV and 1.12 eV respectively in the spin down channel. As the materials have 100 % spin polarization with an integer magnetic moment of −1 μ_B, they are suitable for making spintronic devices such as spin transistors and spin-flip flops. The temperature-dependent thermoelectric properties of the alloys have been studied by classical Boltzmann theory. The materials have low lattice thermal conductivity which was confirmed by Slack’s equation. The obtained thermoelectric figure of merit for p-type TaMnAs, TaMnSb and TaMnBi is 0.7, 0.6 and 0.8 respectively at 1200 K. Similarly, the figure of merit obtained for n-type TaMnAs, TaMnSb and TaMnBi is 0.6, 0.64 and 0.8 respectively at the same temperature. The favourable heat and spin transport properties of these alloys show that they are the potential characters to figure out better thermoelectric and spintronic performance.