RIS ID
87320
Abstract
A giant magnetocaloric effect has been observed around the Curie temperature, TC ∼ 42 K, in NdMn1.7Cr0.3Si2 with no discernible thermal and magnetic hysteresis losses. Below 400 K, three magnetic phase transitions take place around 380 K, 320 K and 42 K. Detailed high resolution synchrotron and neutron powder diffraction (10-400 K) confirmed the magnetic transitions and phases as follows: TN intra ∼ 380 K denotes the transition from paramagnetism to intralayer antiferromagnetism (AFl), TN inter ∼ 320 K represents the transition from the AFl structure to the canted antiferromagnetic spin structure (AFmc), while TC ∼ 42 K denotes the first order magnetic transition from AFmc to canted ferromagnetism (Fmc + F(Nd)) due to ordering of the Mn and Nd sub-lattices. The maximum values of the magnetic entropy change and the adiabatic temperature change, around TC for a field change of 5 T are evaluated to be −ΔSM max ∼ 15.9 J kg−1 K−1 and ΔTad max ∼ 5 K, respectively. The first order magnetic transition associated with the low levels of hysteresis losses (thermal
Grant Number
ARC/DP0879070
Grant Number
ARC/DP110102386
Publication Details
Md Din, M. F., Wang, J. L., Campbell, S. J., Studer, A. J., Avdeev, M., Kennedy, S. J., Gu, Q. F., Zeng, R. & Dou, S. X. (2014). Magnetic phase transitions and entropy change in layered NdMn1.7Cr0.3Si2. Applied Physics Letters, 104 (4), 042401-1-042401-5.