Journal of Superconductivity and Novel Magnetism

https://doi.org/10.1007/s10948-020-05421-5

ORIGINAL PAPER

Ground State Structural, Elastic, Electronic Properties

and Pressure-Induced Structural Phase Transition of XCoSb
(X = Sc, Ti, V, Cr and Mn)
Abdul Shukoor V. 1 & Madhu Sarwan 1 & Sadhna Singh 1

Received: 23 July 2019 / Accepted: 4 January 2020

# Springer Science+Business Media, LLC, part of Springer Nature 2020

Abstract
The structural, elastic and electronic properties of XCoSb along with the impact of pressure on the structure of the compounds are
discussed in this paper. Calculations have been carried out using the pseudopotential plane wave method within generalized
gradient approximation according to the Perdew-Burke-Ernzerhof (GGA-PBE) method. At ambient conditions, XCoSb crystal-
lizes in a C1b-type cubic structure and we observed that at high-pressure VCoSb, CrCoSb and MnCoSb undergo a phase
transition from cubic to the LiGaGe-type hexagonal structure. Elastic constants are reported for the first time. The electronic
band structure and density of states (DOS) show that ScCoSb and TiCoSb are semiconductors and non-magnetic while VCoSb,
CrCoSb and MnCoSb are half-metallic ferromagnetic. In addition, we have also calculated elastic moduli, Zener anisotropic
factor, Poisson’s ratio and transverse and longitudinal sound velocities from the second-order elastic constant.

Keywords Half Heusler . Elastic constants . Phase transition . Density functional theory

1 Introduction properties of TiCoSb have been investigated by many

The half Heusler alloys, especially half-metallic and nar-
row bandgap semiconductors, have become the focus of
researchers due to their potential applications in
spintronics and thermoelectric devices [1, 2]. The mi-
nority band in half-metallic Heusler alloys are semicon-
ducting and 100% spin-polarized [3]. Half Heusler al-
loys usually crystallize in a cubic MgAgAs-type struc-
ture with space group F-43m (no. 216) and have the
formula XYZ, where Y and Z form a rock salt structure
having the lattice points (0, 0, 0) and (0.5, 0.5, 0.5)
respectively and X atom located at the octahedral voids
at one of the lattice points either at (0.25, 0.25, 0.25) or
(0.75, 0.75, 0.75). This is the stable crystal structure of
half Heusler alloys at ambient conditions [3, 4].
Morzkin and Nikiforow [5] investigated the thermoelec-
tric properties of LiGaGe-type ScCoSb. Thermoelectric
* Abdul Shukoor V.
abdulshukoor.v@gmail.com
1
High Pressure Lab, Department of Physics, Barkatullah University,
Bhopal 462026, India
researchers [6–13]. The compound CoVSb has been
studied to a greater extent [3, 14–17]. Kong et al. [3]
investigated the structural, elastic and pressure-induced
phase transition of CoVSb. They concluded that CoVSb
undergoes structural phase transition under pressure
from a cubic to normal hexagonal structure {V (0 0
0), Co (1/3, 2/3, 3/4) Sb (1/3, 2/3, 1/4)} at 13.5 GPa.
Kripyaleevich et al. [14] reported the crystal structure of
VCoSb first time in 1963. Noda et al. [15] observed
that VCoSb transforms into a hexagonal (P63/mmc no.
164) structure under pressure of 5 GPa and temperature
of 1200 K. In 2005, Heyne et al. [16] predicted that
cubic VCoSb is not half Heusler despite a number of
researchers [3, 16, 17] succeeded to prove that cubic
CoVSb is a half Heusler structure at ambient conditions.
Kandpal and associates [18] studied electronic properties
of CrCoSb and they remarked that the high peak in the
DOS at Fermi energy suggests the non-existence of this
compound. Ahmadian [19] probed into magnetic and
electronic properties of CrCoSb and they perceived that
half-metallicity of CrCoSb does not change with small
distortions. Besides that, he concluded that the half-
metallicity is available for a wide range of lattice con-
stants (from 5.22 to 6.07 Å). Heusler alloys containing
 J Supercond Nov Magn

Co and Mn are ferromagnetic in nature [18]. Half is 35 Ry and that of density is 200 Ry. The Vanderbilt cold
Heusler alloys having Co and Mn atoms are widely Gaussian smearing [36] is employed for calculation. The
studied both experimentally and theoretically [20–24]. Brillouin zone integration is performed with 13 × 13 × 13
Their structural, electronic and magnetic properties are Monkhorst pack [37] k-mesh and the self-consistent conver-
reported by many researchers [25–28]. Galanakis et al. gence of energy is 10−6 eV/atom. Furthermore, to obtain
[17] showed that MnCoSb is half-metallic but ground state structural parameters like equilibrium volume,
Ksenifoter et al. [29] observed that the half-metallic equilibrium lattice constant, bulk modulus and its pressure
character of MnCoSb is suspectable. Kandpal et al. derivatives, we have calculated total energy at a wide range
[18] investigated the electronic and bonding nature of of lattice constants around available experimental lattice pa-
XCoSb (X = Sc, Ti, V, Cr, Mn) and they observed that rameters and fitted energy vs. volume curve with Birch-
all of the compounds except ScCoSb obey the Slater- Murnaghan equation of state [38] as well. Elastic constants
Pauling rule of the magnetic moment in half Heusler are computed by an elastic code [39] using Quantum
alloys. Among these compounds, VCoSb, CrCoSb and ESPRESSO input files. Elastic moduli (Young’s, bulk and
MnCoSb are half-metallic ferromagnets and TiCoSb is a shear modulus), Zener anisotropic factor, Poisson’s ratio, lon-
non-magnetic semiconductor. But they did not study gitudinal and transverse velocities and Debye temperature are
phase transition phenomena and elastic properties in derived from second-order elastic constants. The Zener aniso-
these compounds. Another remarkable study of tropic factor [40] can be calculated as
pressure-induced structural phase transition of half
2C 44
Heusler alloys is done by LiLia et al. [30]. They report- A¼ ð1Þ
ed that CuAuBi undergoes a phase transition from cubic C 11 −C 12
to the hexagonal LiGaGe-type structure. Noda et al. Bulk modulus (Bv), shear modulus according to Voigt (GV)
[15] synthesized high-pressure phase of VCoSb and [41] and Reuss (GR) [42] formula are given by
VFeSb indicating that under pressure, these half
Heusler compounds transform from a cubic to a 1
BV ¼ fðC 11 þ C 22 þ C 33 Þ þ 2ðC 12 þ C 13 þ C 23 Þg ð2Þ
ZrBeZi-type structure. In a previous work [31], we 9
showed that PbAuY undergoes a structural phase transi- GV ¼
1
fðC 11 þ C 22 þ C 33 Þ−ðC 12 þ C 13 þ C 23 Þ þ 3ðC 44 þ C 55 þ C 66 Þg
tion from cubic to hexagonal. If we scrutinize the 15
REAuSb family, it can be seen that compounds having ð3Þ
smaller rare earth (RE) element crystallizes in LiGaGe- −1
BR ¼ fðS 11 þ S 22 þ S 33 Þ þ 2ðS 12 þ S 13 þ S 23 Þg ð4Þ
type structure [32]. In the REAuPb family, compounds
with lighter RE element crystallizes in cubic half GR ¼ 15f4ðS 11 þ S 22 þ S 33 Þ−ðS 12 þ S 13 þ S 23 Þ þ 3ðS 44 þ S 55 þ S 66 Þg−1
Heusler-type structure though heavier one crystallizes ð5Þ
in ZrBeSi-type structure. Some 18 electrons ternary
compounds crystallize in hexagonal (ZrNiAl-type) and For cubic crystal, the Hill [43] averaged bulk and shear
orthorhombic (TiNiSi-type) phases. From all of these modulus can be estimated from
observations, we can summarize that small change in 1
the size of constituent elements in cubic half Heusler GH ¼ ðGV þ GR Þ ð6Þ
2
alloys may induce a structural phase transition to the
1

hexagonal-type structure. Looking at the fact that no BH ¼ BV þ BR ð7Þ
detailed study is available on pressure-induced structural 2
phase transition and elastic properties of XCoSb com- Young’s modulus and Poisson’s ratio can be obtained from
pounds, we applied the density functional theory (DFT) the bulk modulus and shear modulus as follows:
to study XCoSb in detail.
9GB
E¼ ð8Þ
3B þ G
2 Computational Details 3B−2G
ν¼ ð9Þ
2ð3B þ GÞ
The electronic structure of XCoSb (X = Sc, Ti, V, Cr and Mn)
is calculated using DFT [33] code as implemented in Debye temperature can be obtained from the following Eq.
Quantum ESPRESSO package [34]. We used the plane wave (3).
pseudopotential method within generalized gradient approxi-   1=3
h 3n N A
mation according to the Perdew-Burke-Ernzerhof (GGA- θD ¼ Vm ð10Þ
PBE) [35] method. The kinetic energy cutoff for a plane wave k 4π M
J Supercond Nov Magn

where -1250
(a)
  −1=3 -1252 (ScCOSb)
1 2 1
Vm ¼ þ 3 ð11Þ -1254
3 V 3t Vl
-1256
where Vt and Vl are given as

Energy(eV)
-1258
sffiffiffiffi
G -1260
Vt ¼ ð12Þ
ρ -1262
sffiffiffiffiffiffiffiffiffiffiffiffiffiffiffiffiffiffi -1264
3B þ 4G
Vl ¼ ð13Þ
ρ -1266

-1268

48 50 52 54 56 58 60 62 64
3
3 Result and Discussion Volume(Å )
-1230
3.1 Ground State Structural Properties (b)
-1235
TiCoSb
To obtain structural properties at zero pressure and 0 K tem- -1240
perature, we performed total energy calculations for both non-
spin-polarized (non-magnetic, NM) and spin-polarized (ferro- -1245
Energy(eV)

magnetic, FM) state for a wide range of lattice constants and

obtained E-V curve which is fitted with Birch-Murnaghan -1250

equation of states. The equilibrium lattice constants, equilib- -1255

rium volumes, bulk modulus (B) and their pressure derivatives
are listed in Table 1. -1260
As seen in Table 1, the calculated values are very close to
the available experimental and other theoretical values. -1265

Figures 1 and 2 display energy vs. volume (E vs. V) curve of

-1270
XCoSb, in which ScCoSb and TiCoSb are non-magnetic com- 20 30 40 50 60 70 80 90
pounds (Fig. 1). Apart from that, we have plotted E (V) curves 3
Volume (Å )
for both non-magnetic and ferromagnetic phases of VCoSb,
Fig. 1 a, b Energy vs. volume curve of ScCoSb and TiCoSb
CrCoSb and MnCoSb (Fig. 2a–c). It is well understood that

Table 1 Ground state structural properties of XCoSb (X = Sc, Ti, V, Cr ferromagnetic state is more energetically stable in these
and Mn). Lattice constants (Å), cell volume V0 (Å3), bulk modulus B compounds.
(GPa) and its pressure derivative B′ at zero pressure

XCoSb 3.2 Elastic Properties

X acal (Å) V0 (Å3) B (GPa) B′ References To know the elastic properties of these compounds, we have
computed second-order elastic constants of XCoSb (X = Sc,
Sc 6.112 57.080 116.6 4.55 Present Other [18]
6.095 - 110.5 - Ti, V, Cr and Mn) using an elastic tool. The calculated values
Ti 5.902 51.396 180.40 3.05 Present Other [18] are well tabulated in Table 2.
5.888 - 151.5 - Exp. [18] At ambient conditions, these alloys crystallize in cubic
5.884 - - -
structure; i.e., there are only three independent elastic con-
V 5.835 49.667 158.0 3.98 Present Other [18]
5.823 - 150.8 - Exp. [3, 18] stants (C11, C12 and C44) due to high symmetry of cubic lat-
5.802 48.828 - - tice, where C11 represents the strength of the material against
Cr 5.815 49.157 148.5 3.45 Present the linear deformation while C12 and C44 measure the resis-
5.820 - 135.4 - Other [18]
tance of the material against the shear and volumetric distor-
Mn 5.807 48.955 145.0 9.13 Present
tion. The knowledge of elastic constants can lead to the study
5.810 - 139.1 - Other [18]
5.875 - - - Exp. [18] of mechanical stability of the material [3, 40]. The stability
criteria are given by C11 + 2C12 > 0, C11 > 0, C44 > 0 and
 J Supercond Nov Magn

-1468.6 Table 2 Elastic properties of XCoSb (X = Sc, Ti, V, Cr and Mn).

VCoSb
(a) Second-order elastic constants C11, C12, C44, bulk modulus (B), shear
-1468.8 modulus (G), Young’s modulus (E) (in GPa), Pugh ratio (G/B),
anisotropic factor (A) and Poisson’s ratios (N) are unitless quantities
-1469.0
ScCoSb TiCoSb VCoSb CrCoSb MnCoSb
Energy(eV)

-1469.2
(NM) C11 437.2 243.2 228.2 262.30 186.3
-1469.4 (FM) - - 241.0 [3] - -
C12 87.30 137.8 96.10 125.00 72.20
-1469.6
- - 91.0 [3] - -
-1469.8 C44 81.10 92.80 21.10 27.50 35.80
- - 57.0 [3] - -
-1470.0 B 203.9 172.94 140.10 170.76 110.20
- - 141 [3] - -
44 46 48 50 52 54 56 58 60 62
G 110.97 73.94 34.05 40.03 43.17
3
Volume(A ) - - 64 [3] - -
G/B 0.540 0.420 0.240 0.230 0.390
E 281.79 194.14 94.49 111.37 114.56
-1344 (b) CrCoSb - - 165[3] - -
A 0.463 1.760 0.319 0.402 0.627
− 0.149 [3] - -
-1345
Ν 0.270 0.310 0.390 0.390 0.330
- - 0.304 [3] - -
Energy(eV)

-1346
Other [3]

-1347 NM
FM C44, which indicates that deformation in shape is much easier
than deformation in length. Perhaps neither experimental nor
-1348 theoretical results are available for comparison of elastic con-
stants in these compounds except for VCoSb. Kong et al. [3]
40 42 44 46 48 50 52 54 56 58 60 62 calculated elastic constants of VCoSb and our calculated
3
Volume(A ) values are close to their values.
-1699.8
In addition, the bulk modulus, shear modulus of elasticity,
-1700.0 (c)
Young’s modulus, Pugh’s ratio, Zener anisotropic factor and
MnCoSb
-1700.2 Poisson’s ratio have been calculated using Eqs. (1–9) and the
-1700.4 obtained values are listed and compared with other available
-1700.6 results in Table 2. It is clear from Table 2 that our values of
-1700.8 bulk modulus are very close to other values [3]. The Pugh
Energy(eV)

-1701.0 ratio (G/B) [44] reveals the brittle/ductile nature of the

-1701.2
-1701.4
-1701.6 (NM)
Table 3 The calculated density ρ (in g cm −3 ), the transverse
(FM)
-1701.8 longitudinal, and average sound velocities Vt, Vl and Vm (in ms−1) and
-1702.0 the Debye temperatures D (in K) for the XCoSb
-1702.2
XCoSb
-1702.4

40 42 44 46 48 50 52 54 56 58 60 62 X ρ Vl Vt Vm D
3
Volume(A )
Sc 6.567 7320 4110 2186.44 243.940
Fig. 2 Energy vs. volume curve of VCoSb (a), CrCoSb (b) and MnCoSb
Ti 7.384 6064 3164 2824.87 326.406
(c) for cubic non-magnetic (NM) and ferromagnetic (FM) states
V 7.744 4894 2096 4221.72 493.412
- 5400 [3] 2866 [3] 3203 [3] 374 [3]
Cr 7.860 5340 2256 3920.32 459.767
C11 > B > C12. It is found that all of these investigated com-
Mn 7.992 4581 2324 3839.03 450.847
pounds strictly follow this stability rule insisting that they are
mechanically stable. From Table 2, we can observe that C11 > Other [3]
J Supercond Nov Magn

-1262.0 -1326
(a) (d) (Cubic)
-1262.5 -1328
(Hexagonal)
(Hexagonal) -1330
-1263.0
(Cubic)
-1332
-1263.5
-1334
-1264.0
En er g y (eV)

Energy(eV)
-1336
-1264.5
-1338
-1265.0
-1340
-1265.5
-1342
-1266.0
-1344
-1266.5 -1346
-1267.0 CrCoSb
ScCoSb -1348
-1267.5 -1350
52 53 54 55 56 57 58 59 60 20 22 24 26 28 30 32 34 36 38 40 42 44 46 48 50 52 54 56

(Volume (Å3) Volume (Å3)

-1262.5 -1690
(b) (Hexagonal)
-1691 (e)
(Cubic) (Hexagonal)
-1263.0 -1692 (Cubic)
-1263.5 -1693
-1694
-1264.0 -1695
En er g y (eV)

Energy(eV)
-1696
-1264.5
-1697
-1265.0 -1698
-1699
-1265.5
-1700
-1266.0 -1701
-1702
-1266.5 TICoSb MnCoSb
-1703
-1267.0 -1704
50 51 52 53 54 55 25 30 35 40 45 50 55 60 65

Volume (Å3) Volume (Å3)

-1466.0
(c)
-1466.5 (Hexagonal)
(Cubic)
-1467.0

-1467.5

-1468.0
En er g y (eV)

-1468.5

-1469.0

-1469.5

-1470.0

-1470.5 VCoSb

-1471.0
25 30 35 40 45 50 55 60 65 70

Volume (Å3)
Fig. 3 a–e Energy vs. volume curve of cubic and hexagonal phase of XCoSb (X = Sc, Ti, V, Cr and Mn)

material. The materials whose G/B ratio is lesser than the
critical value which is 0.57 show ductile nature whereas the
greater ones are brittle in nature. The G/B ratio is listed in
Table 2 and it is evident that all of these materials are ductile
in nature. Young’s modulus determines the stiffness of the
material and the relative stiffness is found to be ScCoSb >
TiCoSb > MnCoSb > CrCoSb > VCoSb. The Zener
anisotropic factor (A) [40] is calculated by Eq. (1), the unit
value of A represents complete isotropic nature of the material
and any deviation from unity measures the degree of anisot-
ropy. The estimated values are given in Table 2 and the data
shows that all of these materials are elastically anisotropic in
nature. The large value of A (1.76) in TiCoSb arises due to the
major dependency on C44 which in fact gives the shear
 J Supercond Nov Magn

Table 4 Phase transition pressure (Pt) (in GPa), lattice parameters (a 0.33 which are all higher than 0.33. Therefore, the vital con-
and c) (in Å) of hexagonal phase, number of valence electron (nv), tribution in interatomic bonding in these compounds is metal-
magnetic moment (M) (in Bohr magneton) and magnetic type lic and that of ScCoSb and TiCoSb is given 0.27 and 0.31,
XCoSb respectively, demonstrating the less metallic nature of these
compounds. Higher values of Poisson’s ratios (> 0.25) in these
X Pt a c nv M Type Ref. compounds indicate their anisotropic nature. We have calcu-
lated the longitudinal, transverse and average elastic wave
Sc - - - 17 0 NM, SC Pres.
velocities of these compounds and the Debye temperature
Ti - - - 18 0 NM, SC Pres.
using Eqs. (10–13). The obtained values are listed in Table 3.
V 10.8 3.885 4.763 19 1 HM, FM Pres.
13.30 - - - - HM, FM [3] It can be discerned that VCoSb possesses highest Debye
Cr 12.3 4.205 5.187 20 2 HM, FM Pres. temperature followed by CrCoSb and MnCoSb. The semicon-
Mn 13.04 4.10 5.088 21 3 HM, FM Pres. ducting non-magnetic compounds TiCoSb and ScCoSb pos-
sess comparatively less Debye temperature.
NM non-magnetic, FM ferromagnetic, SC semiconductor, HM half-
metallic 3.3 Pressure-Induced Structural Phase Transition

deformation of the compound. We have also calculated
Poisson’s ratio according to Eq. (9). From Poisson’s ratio,
we can determine the interatomic bonding nature of materials,
and the values for covalent, ionic and metallic bonding are 0.1,
0.25 and 0.33 respectively. In Table 2, the values of Poisson’s
ratio for VCoSb, CrCoSb and MnCoSb are 0.39, 0.39, and
Very few researchers have reported [15, 30, 31] the
pressure-induced structural phase transition of half
Heusler alloys from cubic to hexagonal phase. To inves-
tigate the possibility of structural phase transition in
XCoSb, we optimized unit cell volume and ionic posi-
tions of both cubic and hexagonal structures. Lattice

Fig. 4-5 Electronic band structure of ScCoSb and TiCoSb

Fig. 6-7 Spin up and spin down electronic band structure of VCoSb
J Supercond Nov Magn
Fig. 8-9 Spin up and spin down electronic band structure of CrCoSb
parameters ‘a’ for cubic and ‘a’ and ‘c’ for hexagonal
structure optimized simultaneously. The obtained energies
as function of the volume are displayed in Fig. 3a–e).
From these figures, we can see that in this given range of
volume (i.e. lattice parameters), these compounds show meta-
stability except ScCoSb and TiCoSb.
In ScCoSb and TiCoSb, a hexagonal structure is not ener-
getically favourable as seen in the figures. This may be asso-
ciated with their comparatively larger values of C44 and shear
modulus G since these values indicate the resistance against
the deformation in shape. But VCoSb, CrCoSb and MnCoSb
undergo phase transition from a cubic to a LiGaGe-type hex-
agonal structure{X (0, 0, 0), Co (1/3, 2/3, 3/4) Sb (2/3, 1/3,
1/4)} at pressures 10.8, 12.3 and 13.04 GPa respectively. The
lattice parameters ‘a’ and ‘c’ for high-pressure hexagonal
phase are listed in Table 4. From Table 4, it is clear that
VCoSb, CrCoSb and MnCoSb show ferromagnetic (FM) na-
ture in hexagonal phase. Here, we see that these compounds
are showing phase transition from a cubic (FM) to a hexagonal
(FM) structure. Also VCoSb is showing transition at 10.8 GPa
which is slightly lesser than the phase transition pressure (Pt)
reported by Kong et al. [3]. We could not compare the calcu-
lated values because of the unavailability of other reported
values.
Fig. 10-11 Spin up and spin down electronic band structure of MnCoSb
3.4 Electronic Properties
Figures 4, 5, 6, 7, 8, 9, 10, 11 and 12 display the electronic
band structure and density of states (DOS) of XCoSb which
are plotted against spin up and spin down directions. The DOS
of CrCoSb shows a peak at the Fermi level and this may
indicate the non-existence of CrCoSb. The calculated magnet-
ic moments are given in Table 4 and it can be clearly seen that
except ScCoSb, all of these compounds follow the Slater-
Pauling rule (Mt = Z t–18) for magnetic moments in half
Heusler alloys. The band structure of ScCoSb does not fulfil
the criteria of magnetism as the bands are too broad. From the
band structure, we can see that VCoSb, CrCoSb and MnCoSb
are half-metallic since there is a gap at the Fermi level in
minority spin direction, and ScCoSb and TiCoSb are indirect
bandgap semiconductors. As we go from Sc to Mn (i.e. in-
creasing valence electron of X atom), we can see a narrowing
of the gap between d states derived from the X and Co atom
and this is due to partial filling d states above the Fermi level
and the tendency of transition metal to stabilize energy in
going across d series [45, 46].
The interaction between X-Sb is negligible compared
with X-Co and Co-Sb interactions. As many theoreti-
cians pointed out, we can say that half Heusler alloys

Fig. 12 Density of states (DOS) XCoMn (X = Sc, Ti, V, Cr and Mn)
having 18 or 8 electrons in the valence shell are most
stable and as the number of valence electron increases
from 18, the stability of the compound decreases but the
system tries to increase its stability by making minority
band less occupied and this leads to half-metallicity in
these compounds.
4 Conclusion
Using the density functional theory, the structural, elastic and
electronic properties of XCoSb (X = Sc, Ti, V, Cr and Mn) are
investigated. It is found that all of these compounds crystallize
in a C1b-type cubic structure. We found that the VCoSb,
CrCoSb and MnCoSb are ferromagnetic in nature and under-
go a structural phase transition from a cubic to a LiGaGe-type
hexagonal structure at high pressure, while ScCoSb and
TiCoSb are non-magnetic in nature and there is no transition.
The phase transition pressures and elastic properties (except
VCoSb) are probably reported for the first time in this paper.
On the basis of elastic properties, it is concluded that all these
compounds show the ductile and anisotropic nature. It is pre-
dicted from the electronic structures of these compounds that
ScCoSb and TiCoSb are non-magnetic semiconductors while
VCoSb, CrCoSb and MnCoSb show a half-metallic ferromag-
netic behaviour. The present results will add a valuable data in
the current literature and may enhance the future work related
to the same.
J Supercond Nov Magn
Funding Information The authors are grateful to the University Grants
Commission (UGC), New Delhi, for the financial support. Abdul
Shukoor V and Madhu Sarwan are thankful to UGC for providing BSR
fellowship and post-Doctoral Fellowship respectively.
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