First-principles study on the half-metallic properties of the d quaternary Heusler compounds: KCaCBr and KCaCI

With ab initio calculations, we studied the structural, electronic, and magnetic properties of quaternary Heusler compounds KCaCX (X = Br and I) adopted stable and metastable phases. We found that the most stable structure is type-3 atomic arrangement configuration where K, Ca, C, and X atoms occupy (0, 0, 0), (0.5, 0.5, 0.5), (0.25, 0.25, 0.25) and (0.75, 0.75, 0.75) positions, respectively. The metastable one is type-1 configuration where K, C, Ca and X occupy (0, 0, 0), (0.5, 0.5, 0.5), (0.25, 0.25, 0.25) and (0.75, 0.75, 0.75) positions, respectively. The results show that they are half-metallic ferromagnets with integer magnetic moments of 2.0 μB at their equilibrium lattice constants. It is also found that the spin-polarization is mainly from the C-2p states. In addition, KCaCBr compound with type-1 configuration shows an electronic transition from ordinary half-metallic state to zero-gap half-metallic state with the changing the lattice parameter.