Giant magnetic entropy change in colossal magnetoresistance in La0.7Ca0.3MnO3 material in low field

The structural, magnetic, and magnetocaloric properties of the manganite La0.7Ca0.3MnO3 have been studied. Change in the giant magnetic entropy was observed without any noticeable magnetic hysteresis but with small thermal hysteresis losses. We observed a first order magnetic phase transition around 251 K. The magnetic entropy change observed in this work is estimated to be 5.27 J/kg K for field changes from 0 to 1.5 T based on magnetization measurements. This value is about twice as large as those for other perovskite manganites and is even larger than for Gd-based magnetic materials at low fields. In addition, the entropy change was estimated by using the heat capacity method, which can be well explained by the Maxwell relation.