Magnetic and electrical properties of the half-metallic ferromagnets Co2CrAl

This paper presents the results of measurements of the magnetic and electrical properties of the ferromagnetic alloy Co2CrAl in two structural states: (i) after severe plastic deformation and (ii) after shortterm high-temperature annealing of the deformed specimens. The experiments have been performed at temperatures in the range from 2 to 900 K in magnetic fields H ≤ 50 kOe. The ferromagnetic Curie temperature T C and the paramagnetic Curie temperature Θ have been determined (T C = 305 K and Θ = 326 K), as well as the spontaneous magnetic moment μ S and the effective magnetic moment μeff per molecule of the alloy (μ S = 1.62 μB and μ eff 2 = 8.2 μ B 2 ). It has been shown that the magnetic crystalline anisotropy energy of the alloy is on the order of ∼5 × 105 erg/g. The specific features of the electrical properties are associated with the presence of an energy gap in the electronic spectrum near the Fermi level E F and with the change in the parameters of the energy gap as a function of the temperature.