Magnetic properties of Mn3Si from first-principles studies

The Heusler compound Mn3Si, the antiferromagnet in the Mn-based class of Heuslers which contains several conventional and half-metallic ferromagnet, shows a peculiar stability of its magnetic order in high magnetic fields. We investigated the electronic and magnetic properties of Mn3Si by band structure calculations based on the density functional theory. The minority bands of Mn3Si in the spin polarized state are gapped at the Fermi level, which shows a half-metallic behavior of Mn3Si.