Structural, magnetic and transport properties of Fe-based full Heusler alloy Fe2CoSn nanowires prepared by template-based electrodeposition

Abstract

Fe2CoSn Heusler alloy nanowires (NWs) were synthesized for the first time through alternating current (A.C) electrodeposition due to its manufacturing and size tailoring ease. To approach our desired goal, deposition potential was used to control the alloy composition of Fe, Co and Sn contents as it was almost inversely proportional to the composition ratio of Sn and (Fe, Co). The effects of deposition potential on morphology, chemical composition, crystal structure and electric/magnetic properties were investigated. According to the scanning electron microscopy (SEM) micrographs, the Fe2CoSn NWs exhibited diameter of about 40–60 nm range and the length existing in the range of 15 µm. X-ray diffraction (XRD) patterns reveal that two types of reflection were observed i.e. fundamental (A2-type crystal structure) and super-lattice (L21 crystal structure) reflection. Almost 35 nm was the average grain size calculated through XRD technique using full width half maximum (FWHM). The composition of Fe2CoSn nanowires has been confirmed by using EDX analysis, whereassurface chemistry of Heusler alloy (Fe2CoSn) NWs was examined through FTIR. Magnetic measurement indicated that Fe2CoSn Heusler alloy was ferromagnetic at room temperature with a maximum coercivity of 484 Oe at 17 V. Two probe (I-V) curve showed non-ohmic character and Hall measurement (Four probe) revealed the inverse relation between resistivity (ρ), mobility (µ) and followed excellent transport as well as spin dependent properties of Heusler alloy (Fe2CoSn) NWs. Half metallicity in (Fe2CoSn) Heusler alloy NWs was confirmed by full potential lineralized augmented plane wave methods (FP-LAPW) within density functional theory (DFT) in detail. These results revealed that Heusler alloy (Fe2CoSn) NWs have wide range of multifunctional properties such as combination of magnetism and exceptional transport properties in spintronic devices.