The electronic, magnetic and optical properties of Ni and Cd based full-Heusler alloys, Ni₂NbSi, Ni₂ZrGe, Cd₂MnAs and Cd₂MnSb, are studied using the spin polarized full-potential linearized augmented plane wave (FP-LAPW) method based on Density Functional Theory (DFT). The exchange correlation potential PBE-GGA approach, as implemented in the WIEN2k code, is used to investigate band structure, density of states, and optical spectra for these Heusler compounds. The optimized lattice parameters were estimated to be 5.93 Å, 6.13 Å, 6.90 Å and 7.15 Å for Ni₂NbSi, Ni₂ZrGe, Cd₂MnAs and Cd₂MnSb respectively. Our study reveals that the alloys are metallic in nature since both the spin up and spin down states are conducting. The optical performance of the compounds is determined by analyzing real and imaginary dielectric function components, optical absorption, reflectivity and refractivity spectra.

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