Band splitting induced Berry flux and intrinsic anomalous Hall conductivity in the NiCoMnGa quaternary Heusler compound

Abstract

The anomalous transport properties of Heusler compounds have become a hot spot of research in recent years due to their unique band structure and possible application in spintronics. In this paper, we report the anomalous Hall effect in a polycrystalline NiCoMnGa quaternary Heusler compound by experimental means and theoretical calculations. The experimental anomalous Hall conductivity (AHC) was found to be about 256 S/cm at 10 K with an intrinsic contribution of ∼121 S/cm. The analysis of Hall data reveals the presence of both extrinsic and intrinsic contributions in the anomalous Hall effect. Our theoretical calculations show that a pair of spin-orbit coupled bands formed by the band splitting due to spin-orbit interaction at the Fermi level produces a finite Berry flux in the system that provides an intrinsic AHC of about 100 S/cm, which is in good agreement with the experiment.