arXiv subjects

W. H. Wang

Publications and source records attributed to W. H. Wang.

At least 55 records · Page 3Linked to original sources

arXiv2013

Half-metallicity and anisotropy magnetoresistance properties of Heusler alloys Fe2Co1-xCrxSi

In this paper, we investigate the half-metallicity of Heusler alloys Fe2Co1-xCrxSi by first principles calculations and anisotropy magnetoresistance measurements. It is found that, with the increase of Cr content x, the Fermi level of Fe2Co1-xCrxSi moves from the top of valence band to the bottom of conduction band, and a large half-metallic band gap of 0.75 eV is obtained for x=0.75. We then successfully synthesized a series Heusler Fe2Co1-xCrxSi polycrystalline ribbon samples. The results of X-ray diffraction indicate that the Fe2Co1-xCrxSi series of samples are pure phase with a high degree of order and the saturation magnetic moment follows half-metallic Slater-Pauling rule. Except for the two end members, Fe2CoSi and Fe2CrSi, the anisotropic magnetoresistance of Fe2Co1-xCrxSi (x=0.25, 0.5, 0.75) show a negative value suggesting they are stable half-metallic ferromagnets.

cond-mat.mtrl-sci↗

arXiv2013

Giant magnetocaloric effect in isostructural MnNiGe-CoNiGe system by establishing a Curie-temperature window

An effective scheme of isostructural alloying was applied to establish a Curie-temperature window in isostructural MnNiGe-CoNiGe system. With the simultaneous accomplishment of decreasing structural-transition temperature and converting antiferromagnetic martensite to ferromagnetic state, a 200 K Curie-temperature window was established between Curie temperatures of austenite and martensite phases. In the window, a first-order magnetostructural transition between paramagnetic austenite and ferromagnetic martensite occurs with a sharp jump in magnetization, showing a magnetic entropy change as large as -40 J kg-1 K-1 in a 50 kOe field change. This giant magnetocaloric effect enables Mn1-xCoxNiGe to become a potential magnetic refrigerant.

cond-mat.mtrl-sci↗

arXiv2013

A connection between the structural alpha-relaxation and the beta-relaxation found in bulk metallic glass-formers

New metallic glasses containing La or Ce have been introduced that have dynamic properties bordering on extremes of conventional metallic glasses. This provides opportunity to test trends or correlations established before in molecular and polymeric glass-formers if exist the same exist in the broader family of metallic glasses. Due to the drastically different chemical and physical structure of metallic glass-formers than soft matter, there is no guarantee that any correlation found in the latter will hold in the former. If found, the result brings metallic glasses closer to the much wider classes of glass-formers by the similarity in properties, and possibly have the same explanation. In non-metallic glass-formers, a general and fundamental connection has been established between the non-exponentiality parameter of the structural alpha-relaxation and the separation between its relaxation time and the beta-relaxation time. In this paper we explore the experimental data of metallic glass-formers and show the correlation applies. An explanation of this correlation is given. The establishment of the correlation may facilitate the understanding of the roles played by the beta-relaxation observed in macroscopic properties of metallic glasses including the relations to shear transformation zone, ductile-brittle transition in deformation, crystallization, and diffusion.

cond-mat.mtrl-sci↗

arXiv2013

Topological Insulators in Hexagonal Wurtzite-type Binary Compounds

We propose new topological insulators in hexagonal wurtzite-type binary compounds based on the first principles calculations. It is found that two compounds AgI and AuI are three-dimensional topological insulators with a naturally opened band-gap at Fermi level. From band inversion mechanism point view, this new family of topological insulators is similar with HgTe, which has s (Gamma 6) - p (Gamma 8) band inversion. Our results strongly support that the spin-orbit coupling is not an essential factor to the band inversion mechanism; on the contrary, it is mainly responsible to the formation of a global band gap for the studied topological insulators. We further theoretically explore the feasibility of tuning the topological order of the studied compounds with two types of strains. The results show that the uniaxial strain can contribute extremely drastic impacts to the band inversion behavior, which provide an effective approach to induce topological phase transition.

cond-mat.mtrl-sci↗

arXiv2013

Hidden order in serrated flow of metallic glasses

We report results of statistical and dynamic analysis of the serrated stress-time curves obtained from compressive constant strain-rate tests on two metallic glass samples with different ductility levels in an effort to extract hidden information in the seemingly irregular serrations. Two distinct types of dynamics are detected in these two alloy samples. The stress-strain curve corresponding to the less ductile $Zr_{65}Cu_{15}Ni_{10}Al_{10}$ alloy is shown to exhibit finite correlation dimension and a positive Lyapunov exponent, suggesting that the underlying dynamics is chaotic. In contrast, for the more ductile $Cu_{47.5}Zr_{47.5}Al_{5}$ alloy, the distributions of stress drop magnitudes and their time durations obey a power law scaling reminiscent of a self-organized critical state. The exponents also satisfy the scaling relation compatible with self-organized criticality. Possible physical mechanisms contributing to the two distinct dynamic regimes are discussed by drawing on the analogy with the serrated yielding of crystalline samples. The analysis, together with some physical reasoning, suggests that plasticity in the less ductile sample can be attributed to stick-slip of single shear band, while that of the more ductile sample could be attributed to the simultaneous nucleation of large number of shear bands and their mutual interactions.

cond-mat.mtrl-sci↗

arXiv2013

Disorder-induced significant enhancement in magnetization of ball-milled Fe2CrGa alloy

A new disordered atom configuration in Fe2CrGa alloy has been created by ball-milling method. This leads to a significant enhancement of the magnetic moment up to 3.2~3.9 μB and an increase of Curie temperature by about 200 K, compared with the arc-melt samples. Combination of first-principles calculations and experimental results reveals that Fe2CrGa alloy should crystallize in Hg2CuTi based structure with different atomic disorders for the samples prepared by different methods. It is addressed that magnetic interactions play a crucial role for the system to adopt such an atomic configuration which disobeys the empirical rule.

cond-mat.mtrl-sci↗

arXiv2013

Structure and magnetic properties of Heusler alloy Fe2NiZ (Z=Al, Ga, Si and Ge)

The Heusler alloys Fe2NiZ (Z=Al, Ga, Si and Ge) have been synthesized and investigated focusing on the phase stability and the magnetic properties. The experimental and theoretical results reveal the covalent bonding originated from p-d hybridization takes an important role in these alloys, which dominates the stability of ordered structure but leads to the decline of the band splitting. The electronic structure shows the IV group main group element (Si and Ge) provides stronger covalent effect than that of the III group element (Al and Ga). It has been found that the variations of the physical parameters, lattice constants, critical ordering temperature, magnetic moments and Curie temperature, precisely follow these covalent characters.

cond-mat.mtrl-sci↗

arXiv2013

A New Spin Gapless Semiconductors Family: Quaternary Heusler Compounds

Using first-principles calculations, we investigate the band structures of a series of quaternary LiMgPdSn-type Heusler compounds. Our calculation results show that five compounds CoFeMnSi, CoFeCrAl, CoMnCrSi, CoFeVSi and FeMnCrSb possess unique electronic structures characterized by a half-metallic gap in one spin direction while a zero-width gap in the other spin direction showing spin gapless semiconducting behavior. We further analysis the electronic and magnetic properties of all quaternary Heusler alloys involved, and reveal a semi-empirical general rule (total valence electrons number being 26 or 28) for indentifying spin gapless semiconductors in Heusler compounds. The influences of lattice distortion and main-group element change have also been discussed.

cond-mat.mtrl-sci↗

arXiv2012

Role of covalent hybridization in martensitic structure and magnetic properties of shape memory alloys: the case of Ni50Mn5+xGa35-xCu10

We have investigated the impact of covalent hybridization on martensitic structure and magnetic properties of Ni50Mn5+xGa35-xCu10 shape memory alloys. We found that the lattice distortion ((c-a)/a) of L10 martensite monotonously changes with the substitution of Mn for Ga atoms and shows a kink behavior at Ga(at.%)= 25 due to the weakened covalent effect between main-group and transition-metal atoms. Moreover, owing to the competition between covalence hybridization and magnetic ordering of introduced Mn atoms, the molecular magnetic moment and Curie temperature coincidently show maximums at Ga(at.%)=25 as well. These behaviors are closely associated with corresponding changes of the strength of covalent hybridization. The results therefore suggest that careful control of the concentration of main-group atoms in Heusler alloys can serve as an additional general tuning parameter for searching new multifunctional materials.

cond-mat.mtrl-sci↗

arXiv2012

Phase diagram, ferromagnetic martensitic transformation and magnetoresponsive properties of Fe-doped MnCoGe alloys

The crystal structure and magnetoresponsive properties of Fe-doped MnCoGe alloys have been investigated using x-ray diffraction (XRD) and magnetic measurements. By alloying the Fe-containing isostructure compounds into MnCoGe, a magnetostructural transition from paramagnetic austenite to ferromagnetic martensite with large magnetization difference can be realized in a temperature window between the Curie temperatures of the austenite and martensite, resulting in magnetic-field-induced martensitic transformations and large magnetic-entropy changes. A structural and magnetic phase diagram of Fe-doped MnCoGe alloys has been proposed.

cond-mat.mtrl-sci↗

arXiv2012

Compensation effect and magnetostriction in CoCr2-xFexO4

The magnetic compensation and magnetostriction properties in Fe doped CoCr2O4 samples have been investigated. Structural and magnetic measurements imply that the doped Fe3+ ions initially occupy the B1(Cr) sites when x<0.1, and then mainly take the A(Co) sites. This behaviour results in a role conversion of magnetic contributors and a composition compensation between two competitively magnetic sublattices at x=0.1. Temperature dependence compensation has also been found in the samples with x=0.1~0.22, with the compensation temperature in the range of 40~104 K. The Fe3+ doping also modulates the exchange interaction of the system and prevents the formation of long range conical order of spins. The magnetoelectric transition temperature at 23K in CoCr2O4 is shifted to lower temperature by increasing the dopants. The magnetostriction effect in this system has been observed for the first time. The strain has a maximum value of about 280ppm at x=0.4. The magnetostriction is in consistent with the behaviour of the two magnetic compensations.

cond-mat.mtrl-sci↗

arXiv2012

Generalized Slater-Pauling rule for the inverse Heusler compounds

We present extensive first-principles calculations on the inverse full-Heusler compounds having the chemical formula X$_2$YZ where (X = Sc, Ti, V, Cr or Mn), (Z = Al, Si or As) and the Y ranges from Ti to Zn. Several of these alloys are identified to be half-metallic magnets. We show that the appearance of half-metallicity is associated in all cases to a Slater-Pauling behavior of the total spin-magnetic moment. There are three different variants of this rule for the inverse Heusler alloys depending on the chemical type of the constituent transition-metal atoms. Simple arguments regarding the hybridization of the d-orbitals of neighboring atoms can explain these rules. We expect our results to trigger further experimental interest on this type of half-metallic Heusler compounds.

cond-mat.mtrl-sci↗

arXiv2012

Structure, magnetism and magnetic compensation behavior of Co50-xMn25Ga25+x and Co50-xMn25+xGa25 Heusler alloys

The structure, magnetism, magnetic compensation behavior, exchange interaction and electronic structures of Co50-xMn25Ga25+x and Co50-xMn25+xGa25 (x=0-25) alloys have been systematically investigated by both experiments and first-principles calculations. We found that all the samples exhibited body centered cubic structures with a high degree of atomic ordering. With increasing Ga content, the composition dependence of lattice parameters shows a kink point at the middle composition in Co50-xMn25Ga25+x alloys, which can be attributed to the enhanced covalent effect between the Ga and the transition metals. Furthermore, a complicated magnetic competition has been revealed in Co50-xMn25Ga25+x alloys, which causes the Curie temperature dramatically decrease and results in a magnetic moment compensation behavior. In Co50-xMn25+xGa25 alloys, however, with increasing Mn content, an additional ferrimagnetic configuration was established in the native ferromagnetic matrix, which causes the molecular moment monotonously decreases and the exchange interaction enhances gradually. The electronic structure calculations indicate that the Co50-xMn25+xGa25 alloys are likely to be in a coexistence state of the itinerant and localized magnetism. Our study will be helpful to understand the nature of magnetic ordering as well as to tune magnetic compensation and electronic properties of Heusler alloys.

cond-mat.mtrl-sci↗

arXiv2012

Ferromagnetic structures in Mn2CoGa and Mn2CoAl doped by Co, Cu, V, and Ti

The structure and magnetic properties in doped Heusler alloys of Mn2CoGa and Mn2CoAl have been investigated by experiments and calculations. The main group elements of Ga and Al are substituted by the magnetic or non-magnetic transition metals, Co, Cu, V, and Ti in the alloy systems. Three kinds of local ferromagnetic structures, Co-Mn-Co, Mn-Co-Mn and Mn-Co-V, have been found. They embed in the native ferrimagnetic matrix and increase the magnetization with different increments. The Co-Mn-Co ferromagnetic structure shows the largest increment of 6.18μB /atom. In addition, interesting results for non-magnetic Cu increasing the magnetization and the V atom having a large ferromagnetic moment of about 1.0μB have been obtained. The exchange interaction energy can be increased by the newly added Co and depleted by supporting a ferromagnetic coupling in other substitution cases, and showing the variation of the TC. Our calculation of electronic structure verifies the strong d-d hybridization when the three ferromagnetic structures are achieved. It has also been found that the covalent effect from the Ga and Al determines the generation of the local ferromagnetic structure and the tolerance for dopant content.

cond-mat.mtrl-sci↗

arXiv2012

Evolution of Magnetic Glass on Partial Crystallization of a Bulk Metallic Glass: Tb36Sm20Al24Co20

A comparative study on as cast and annealed rare earth bulk metallic glass (BMG) with composition Tb36Sm20Al24Co20 has been carried out by magnetization measurements. The as cast amorphous sample shows non-ergodic magnetization but does not show the behavior expected from magnetic glass. After annealing, the partially crystallized BMG shows this magnetic glass behavior. This is confirmed by the established measurement protocol of cooling and heating in unequal fields (CHUF).

cond-mat.mtrl-sci↗

arXiv2011

The Excess Heat Capacity in Glass-forming Liquid Systems Containing Molecules

The excess heat capacity at glass transition temperature in two types of glass-forming systems of [xNaNO3\cdot(1-x)KNO3]60[Ca(NO3)2]40 (0 \leq x \leq 1) and Ca(NO3)2\cdotyH2O (4 \leq y \leq 13) is studied. In the former system, with the replacement of K+ cation with Na+ cation, the excess heat capacity is almost invariable around 65.1 J\cdotmol-1\cdotK-1, while the excess increases by 38.9 J\cdotmol-1\cdotK-1 with the increasing per molar H2O content in latter system. A quantitative description of the excess heat capacity is built up with the consideration of atomic and molecular translational motion in the glass-forming systems. This finding might offer further understanding to the glass transition.

cond-mat.stat-mech↗

arXiv2011

Spin Transport and Relaxation in Graphene

We review our recent work on spin injection, transport and relaxation in graphene. The spin injection and transport in single layer graphene (SLG) were investigated using nonlocal magnetoresistance (MR) measurements. Spin injection was performed using either transparent contacts (Co/SLG) or tunneling contacts (Co/MgO/SLG). With tunneling contacts, the nonlocal MR was increased by a factor of ~1000 and the spin injection/detection efficiency was greatly enhanced from ~1% (transparent contacts) to ~30%. Spin relaxation was investigated on graphene spin valves using nonlocal Hanle measurements. For transparent contacts, the spin lifetime was in the range of 50-100 ps. The effects of surface chemical doping showed that for spin lifetimes on the order of 100 ps, impurity scattering (Au) was not the dominant mechanism for spin relaxation. While using tunneling contacts to suppress the contact-induced spin relaxation, we observed the spin lifetimes as long as 771 ps at room temperature, 1.2 ns at 4 K in SLG, and 6.2 ns at 20 K in bilayer graphene (BLG). Furthermore, contrasting spin relaxation behaviors were observed in SLG and BLG. We found that Elliot-Yafet spin relaxation dominated in SLG at low temperatures whereas Dyakonov-Perel spin relaxation dominated in BLG at low temperatures. Gate tunable spin transport was studied using the SLG property of gate tunable conductivity and incorporating different types of contacts (transparent and tunneling contacts). Consistent with theoretical predictions, the nonlocal MR was proportional to the SLG conductivity for transparent contacts and varied inversely with the SLG conductivity for tunneling contacts. Finally, bipolar spin transport in SLG was studied and an electron-hole asymmetry was observed for SLG spin valves with transparent contacts...

cond-mat.mes-hall↗

arXiv2010

Kondo effect in metallic glasses with non-Fermi liquid behavior

By microalloying of Gd atoms with 4f electrons into CuZrAl or MgCuY glassy alloys, they display a variety of puzzling behaviors such as the characteristic of Kondo effect. The ground states of the Gd-alloyed systems are determined to have non-Fermi-liquid characteristics which derive from the strong structural disorder. The Kondo effect in these glassy alloys is attributed to the strong structural disorder. The coexistence of the Kondo effect and strong structural disorder has implications for the understanding the origin of the puzzling non-Fermi-liquid behavior.

cond-mat.mtrl-sci↗