On the half-metallicity of Co2FeSi Heusler alloy: Point-contact Andreev reflection spectroscopy andab initiostudy

Co2FeSi, a Heusler alloy with the highest magnetic moment per unit cell and the highest Curie temperature, has largely been described theoretically as a half-metal. This conclusion, however, disagrees with point contact Andreev reflection (PCAR) spectroscopy measurements, which give much lower values of spin polarization, P. Here, we present the spin polarization measurements of Co2FeSi by the PCAR technique, along with a thorough computational exploration, within the DFT and a GGA+U approach, of the Coulomb exchange U parameters for Co and Fe atoms, taking into account spin-orbit coupling. We find that the orbital contribution (mo) to the total magnetic moment (mT) is significant, since it…