The effect of pressure on the structural, electronic, magnetic, and thermodynamic properties of the Mn2RuGe inverse Heusler alloy

In the frame of density functional theory, first-principles calculations based on generalized gradient approximation and quasi-harmonic Debye approximation model in which the phononic effects are taken into account have been carried out to investigate the structural, electronic, magnetic, and thermodynamic properties of full-Heusler alloy Mn2RuGe in CuHg2Ti-type structure in the pressure range of 0-50 GPa. Present calculations predict that Mn2RuGe is a ferrimagnet with an optimized lattice parameter of 5.854 Å. The calculated total magnetic moment of 2.01 μB per formula unit is very close to integer value and agree well with the Slater-Pauling rule, where the partial spin moments of Mn (A) and Mn (B) which mainly contribute to the total magnetic moment are 2.66 μB and −0.90 μB, respectively. In the study of the energy band structures and density of states, Mn2RuGe exhibits half-metallicity with an indirect gap of 0.235 eV in the spin-down channels, and the shifting of bands towards higher energies in spin-down channel under high pressure. Meanwhile, the high-pressure thermodynamic properties of Mn2RuGe, such as the pressure-volume-temperature relationship, bulk modulus, thermal expansivity, heat capacity, Debye temperature, and Grüneisen parameter are evaluated systematically in the temperature range of 0-900 K. This set of data is considered as the useful information to understand the high-pressure and high-temperature properties for the Mn2RuZ-type Heusler alloy family.