GGA plus U study the effects of strains on magnetism, elastic properties and electronic structures of Heusler alloy Pd2FeCu

The effect of strains on electronic structures, elastic properties, magnetic properties and Curie temperature of Pd2FeCu are calculated by GGA + U method. The impact of strains on the magnetism of Pd2FeCu is evaluated. The magnetism without and with spin-orbit coupling (SOC) effect under diverse strain are examined. The results show that Pd2FeCu is a ferromagnetic metal with good ductility and mechanical stability. The SOC effect has a negligible impact on the atomic magnetic moment of Pd2FeCu. When the compressive and tensile strains are imposed, the ferromagnetic metal properties still keep, and the Curie temperature of Pd2FeCu is higher than room temperature. The ferromagnetism for Pd2FeCu is very robust with respect to the variation of the strain. And the Ruderman-Kittel-Kasuya-Yoshida (RKKY) type ferromagnetic interaction play a crucial role to determine the ferromagnetism. We expect this work could stimulate experimental study.