Electronic and crystallographic structure, hard x-ray photoemission, and mechanical and transport properties of the half-metallic Heusler compound Co2MnGe

This work reports on the electronic and crystalline structure and the mechanical, magnetic, and transport properties of the polycrystalline Heusler compound Co${}_{2}$MnGe. The crystalline structure was examined in detail by extended x-ray absorption fine-structure spectroscopy and anomalous x-ray diffraction. The compound exhibits a well-ordered $L{2}_{1}$ structure as is typical for Heusler compounds with 2:1:1 stoichiometry. The low-temperature magnetic moment agrees well with the Slater-Pauling rule and indicates a half-metallic ferromagnetic state of the compound, as is predicted by ab initiocalculations. Transport measurements and hard x-ray photoelectron spectroscopy were performed t…