Structural and Magnetic Properties in Mn2VAl Full-Heusler Epitaxial Thin Films

Epitaxially grown Mn
₂
VAl full-Heusler thin films were fabricated on single crystalline MgO (001) substrates by using an ultra-high-vacuum magnetron sputtering technique. X-ray diffraction revealed that epitaxial Mn
₂
VAl films with a highly L2
₁
-ordered structure were obtained by annealing around 600 °C. For the films deposited without a buffer layer and annealed at 500 °C-600 °C, the saturation magnetization was about 240 emu/cm
³
at 300 K, which was close to the theoretical value. The effective magnetic damping constant of Mn
₂
VAl thin films was investigated using the ferromagnetic resonance technique. The effective damping constant was much larger than expected due to the inhomogeneity in the Mn2VAl films.