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The increasing interest in spin-based electronics has led to a vigorous search for new materials that can provide a high degree of spin polarization in electron transport. An ideal candidate would act as an insulator for one spin channel and a conductor or semiconductor for the opposite spin channel, corresponding to the respective cases of half-metallicity and spin-gapless semiconductivity. Our first-principle electronic-structure calculations indicate that the metallic Heusler compound Ti2MnAl becomes half-metallic and spin-gapless semiconducting if half of the Al atoms are replaced by Sn and In, respectively. These electronic structures are associated with structural transitions from the regular cubic Heusler structure to the inverted cubic Heusler structure. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

A magneto-optically active thin film of RbjCok[Fe(CN)6]l·nH2O has been prepared using a sequential assembly method. Upon irradiation with light and at 5 K, the net magnetization of the film increased when the surface of the film was oriented parallel to the external magnetic field of 0.1 T. However, when the surface of the film was perpendicular to the field, the net magnetization decreased upon irradiation. The presence of dipolar fields and the low-dimensional nature of the system are used to describe the orientation dependence of the photoinduced magnetization. The ability to increase or decrease the photoinduced magnetization by changing the orientation of the system with respect to the field is a phenomenon that may be useful in future device applications. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]