DoctoralThesisinPhysicsFerrimagnetic Heusler CompoundsFrom rst principles to thin lmsMarkusMeinertOctober 2011Bielefeld UniversityDepartment of PhysicsThis work was done by myself. Text and figures were partly taken fromcorresponding publications, which originate directly from this work.(Markus Meinert)Reviewers:Prof. Dr. Gunter¨ ReissProf. Dr. Jur¨ gen SchnackCopyrightc 2011 Markus MeinertBielefeld University, Department of PhysicsThin Films and Physics of NanostructuresTypeface Palladio and Pazo Math 10 pt.ASystem LT X 2 andKOMA-Script.#E”What I cannot compute, I do not understand.”- adapted from Richard P. FeynmanPublications included in this thesis Ab initio prediction of ferrimagnetism, exchange interactions andCurie temperatures in Mn TiZ Heusler compounds2M. MEINERT, J.-M. SCHMALHORST, AND G. REISSJ. Phys. Condens. Matter23, 063001 (2011) Exchange interactions and Curie temperatures of Mn CoZ compounds2M. MEINERT, J.-M. SCHMALHORST, AND G. REISSJ. Phys. Condens. Matter23, 116005 (2011) Electronic structure of fully epitaxial Co TiSn thin films2M. MEINERT, J. SCHMALHORST, H. WULFMEIER, G. REISS,E. ARENHOLZ, T. GRAF, AND C. FELSERPhysical Review B83, 064412 (2011) Ferrimagnetism and disorder of epitaxial Mn Co VAl2 x xHeusler compound thin filmsM. MEINERT, J.-M. SCHMALHORST, G. REISS, AND E. ARENHOLZJ. Phys. D: Appl. Phys.