Structural, Electronic, Magnetic, and Mechanical Properties of Co2-xVxFeSi Heusler Alloys

The influence of V substitution for Co on the structural, electronic, magnetic, and mechanical properties of quaternary Heusler alloys Co
_2-x
V
_x
FeSi (
$x = 0$
, 0.25, 0.50, 0.75, and 1) has been systematically investigated. The microstructural and the scanning profile using energy-dispersive X-ray analysis suggests the single-phase behavior in all alloys except for
$x = 1$
. The X-ray diffraction analysis at room temperature reveals the
$\text{L}2_{1}$
crystal structure promoting lattice expansion after V substitution. The low-temperature saturation magnetic moments, as determined from magnetization measurements, agree fairly well with our theoretical results and also obey the Slater–Pauling rule. Very high Curie temperature is also observed. The alloys are mechanically robust. First-principles calculation with the implementation of a Hubbard correction term (U) is observed to predict half-metallic behavior.