Low-field induced large magnetocaloric effect in Tm2Ni0.93Si2.93: influence of short-range magnetic correlation

• Published in: Journal of physics. Condensed matter Vol. 29; no. 50; p. 505801
• Main Authors: Pakhira, Santanu, Mazumdar, Chandan, Ranganathan, R
• Format: Journal Article
• Language: English
• Published: England IOP Publishing 20.11.2017
• Subjects: antiferromagnetism; ferromagnetism; intermetallic compounds; magnetocaloric effect; x-ray diffraction; Antiferromagnetism; X-ray diffraction; Ferromagnetism; Intermetallic compounds; Magnetocaloric effect
• ISSN: 0953-8984; 1361-648X
• DOI: 10.1088/1361-648X/aa9736

In this work, we report the successful synthesis of a new intermetallic compound Tm2Ni0.93Si2.93 that forms in single phase only in defect crystal structure. The compound does not show any long range magnetic ordering down to 2 K. The material exhibits a large magnetic entropy change (−ΔSM∼13.7 J kg−1 K-1) and adiabatic temperature change (ΔTad∼4.4 K) at 2.2 K for a field change of 20 kOe which can be realized by permanent magnets, thus being very beneficial for application purpose. In the absence of long-range magnetic ordering down to 2 K, the metastable nature of low-temperature spin dynamics and short-range magnetic correlations are considered to be responsible for such a large magnetocaloric effect over a wide temperature region.