Large reversible caloric effect in FeRh thin films via a dual-stimulus multicaloric cycle

• Published in: Nature communications Vol. 7; no. 1; pp. 11614 - 6
• Main Authors: Liu, Yang, Phillips, Lee C., Mattana, Richard, Bibes, Manuel, Barthélémy, Agnès, Dkhil, Brahim
• Format: Journal Article
• Language: English
• Published: London Nature Publishing Group UK 19.05.2016; Nature Publishing Group; Nature Portfolio
• Subjects: 639/301/119/544; 639/301/119/997; Condensed Matter; Cooling; Hazardous materials; Humanities and Social Sciences; Materials Science; multidisciplinary; Phase transitions; Physics; Refrigeration; Science; Science (multidisciplinary); Thin films; France
• ISSN: 2041-1723; 2041-1723
• DOI: 10.1038/ncomms11614

Giant magnetocaloric materials are promising for solid-state refrigeration, as an alternative to hazardous gases used in conventional cooling devices. A giant magnetocaloric effect was discovered near room temperature in near-equiatomic FeRh alloys some years before the benchmark study in Gd 5 Si 2 Ge 2 that launched the field. However, FeRh has attracted significantly less interest in cooling applications mainly due to irreversibility in magnetocaloric cycles associated with the large hysteresis of its first-order metamagnetic phase transition. Here we overcome the irreversibility via a dual-stimulus magnetic-electric refrigeration cycle in FeRh thin films via coupling to a ferroelectric BaTiO 3 substrate. This experimental realization of a multicaloric cycle yields larger reversible caloric effects than either stimulus alone. While magnetic hysteretic losses appear to be reduced by 96% in dual-stimulus loops, we show that the losses are simply transferred into an elastic cycle, contrary to common belief. Nevertheless, we show that these losses do not necessarily prohibit integration of FeRh in practical refrigeration systems. Our demonstration of a multicaloric refrigeration cycle suggests numerous designs for efficient solid-state cooling applications. Refrigeration devices based on giant magnetocaloric materials are hampered by an irreversible caloric effect associated with large magnetic hysteresis. Here, Liu et al . report a multicaloric refrigeration cycle in FeRh thin films coupled to a ferroelectric BaTiO 3 substrate, demonstrating reversibility and conversion of hysteretic losses.