Abstract
An extensive experimental investigation of Fe-based Heusler alloys has been performed in order to potentially prepare new materials which are tetragonally distorted and have large perpendicular magnetic anisotropy crucial not only for the STT-MRAM applications but also for magnetic shape memory devices. Based on criteria demanded for the MSM applications 25 Fe(2)YZ various compounds were selected for the synthesis using arc melting from more than 60 systems suggested theoretically.
Only four compounds Fe2MnSn, Fe2NiSi, Fe2NiGe, and Fe3Ga were homogeneous single phase. None of the studied Fe-based materials exhibited the predicted tetragonal structure.
Magnetic measurements confirmed that all investigated compounds are soft ferromagnets with no sign of a structural transition. Our results contradict the ab-initio calculations showing the limits of theoretical predictions by incomplete high throughput calculations as well as the limitations of the standard synthesis techniques.