Effect of disorder on the resistivity of CoFeCrAl films

Authors

Y. Jin, University of Nebraska-Lincoln
R. Skomski, University of Nebraska-LincolnFollow
P. Kharel, University of Nebraska - Lincoln & South Dakota State University
S.R. Valloppilly, University of Nebraska - Lincoln
D. J. Sellmyer, University of Nebraska-LincolnFollow

Date of this Version

3-10-2017

Citation

055834-2 Jin et al. AIP Advances 7, 055834 (2017) Pages 1-6

Comments

© 2017 Author(s).

Abstract

Structural and electron-transport properties of thin films of the ferrimagnetic Heusler compound CoFeCrAl have been investigated to elucidate structure-property relationships. The alloy is, ideally, a spin-gapless semiconductor, but structural disorder destroys the spin-gapless character and drastically alters the transport behavior. Two types of CoFeCrAl films were grown by magnetron sputtering deposition at 973 K, namely polycrystalline films on Si substrates and epitaxial films on MgO (001) substrates. The resistivity decreases with increasing temperature, with relatively small temperature coefficients of –0.19 cm=K for the polycrystalline films and –0.12 cm=K for the epitaxial films. The residual resistivity of the polycrystalline films deposited on Si is higher than that of the epitaxial film deposited on MgO, indicating that the polycrystalline films behave as socalled dirty metals.