Structural configuration and tetragonal phase stability in the equiatomic quaternary Heusler compound TiZnMnSi.

Heusler materials have aroused great scientific research interest during recent years due to their special electronic and magnetic properties. Especially for the equiatomic quaternary Heusler compounds, they exhibit very high composition flexibility and structure tunability. In this work, we have carried out a systematic study on the structural configuration and tetragonal stability for the Heusler compound TiZnMnSi by first-principles calculations. Results reveal the type-A structure with ferromagnetic state possesses the lowest total energy and thus should be the ground state configuration. Based on the equilibrium lattice constant, the electronic band structures and magnetic moments have been computed. The tetragonal phase transformation is then investigated by using the total energy variation under different tetragonal strains, and the stability analysis of the mechanical and dynamic properties indicates that TiZnMnSi exhibits a strong tendency for the tetragonal phase. These findings could provide reference data for relative experiments as well as a very helpful theoretical reference for this fascinating class of materials.