Effect of Small Pt Doping on the Electronic Structure of NiMnSb Half-Heusler Alloys

The effect of small Pt doping on the electronic and magnetic properties of NiMnSb compound were studied using the spin-polarised tight-binding linear muffin-tin orbital method. The electronic structure of half-Heusler alloys depends on the relative arrangement of the atoms in the unit cell, changing from half-metal to metal. The local ordering drastically influences the value of the band gap. The self-consistent band calculations were performed for the experimental lattice constant and for the lattice parameter estimated from the minimum of the total energy.