Half metallic Co2TiGe—a theoretical and experimental investigation

Using first principle calculations the electronic structure and magnetic properties of the half metallic Co2TiGe was investigated. The electronic structure calculations were performed using two different parameterization schemes. The band gap obtained in the minority spin state using LDA scheme in TB-LMTO method was smaller than that obtained using GGA scheme in FP-LAPW method. To explore the half metallic property experimentally bulk Co2TiGe was synthesized by arc melting under argon atmosphere. The magnetic moment per formula unit determined from saturation magnetization at 2 K was 1.9 μB, which was close to the theoretically calculated value of 2 μB. A detailed analysis of the low temperature transport and magnetotransport properties exhibit characteristic features of half metals such as T9/2 dependence of low temperature resistivity, negligible temperature dependence of resistivity below 20 K and a cross over from positive to negative MR around 100 K.