Spontaneous Zero-Field Cooling Exchange Bias in Ni–Co–Mn–Sn Metamagnetic Heusler Sputtered Film

Metamagnetic off-stoichiometric Heusler alloys are actively being investigated because of their great potential as magnetocaloric materials. These properties are intimately related to the nanoscale homogeneity of their magnetic properties, mainly due to a strong influence of the nature of the exchange interactions between Mn atoms on the magnetism of the alloys. In this work, a spontaneous exchange bias phenomenon on a Ni–Co–Mn–Sn metamagnetic Heusler sputtered film is presented and studied in detail. More particularly, a series of DC magnetization curves measured as a function of the temperature demonstrates that the system exhibits canonical spin glass-like features. After a careful study of the field-cooling and zero-field-cooling curves measured on this system, the existence of magnetic inhomogeneities is inferred, as a consequence of the competition between ferromagnetic and antiferromagnetic exchange interactions between Mn atoms. Further AC susceptibility measurements on this system demonstrate that the underlying exchange bias phenomenon can be attributed to a magnetic clusters model based on superferromagnetic-like interactions present in the film. These findings suggest that the spontaneous exchange bias exhibited by the studied system is a consequence of the formation of this superferromagnetic-like state.