Anisotropic magnetocaloric effect in ErGa2 and HoGa2 single-crystals

•Single-crystals of ErGa2 and HoGa2 were grown by flux method.•Using single crystals sample one can improve the magnetocaloric effect.•Exploring anisotropic properties is possible to obtain a significant MCE.•The MCE is produced just by rotating the material under a constant magnetic field. In this...

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Bibliographic Details
Published in:Journal of alloys and compounds 2014, Vol.582, p.461-465
Main Authors: dos Reis, R.D., da Silva, L.M., dos Santos, A.O., Medina, A.M.N., Cardoso, L.P., Gandra, F.C.G.
Format: Article
Language:English
Subjects:
Alloys
Anisotropic
Anisotropy
Condensed matter: electronic structure, electrical, magnetic, and optical properties
Entropy
Exact sciences and technology
Intermetallics
Inverse
Magnetic fields
Magnetic materials
Magnetic properties and materials
Magnetically ordered materials: other intrinsic properties
Magnetization
Magnetocaloric
Magnetocaloric effect, magnetic cooling
Mathematical analysis
Physics
Single crystals
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Summary:•Single-crystals of ErGa2 and HoGa2 were grown by flux method.•Using single crystals sample one can improve the magnetocaloric effect.•Exploring anisotropic properties is possible to obtain a significant MCE.•The MCE is produced just by rotating the material under a constant magnetic field. In this work we study the anisotropic magnetocaloric properties of ErGa2 and HoGa2 single-crystals. Both compounds present antiferromagnetic ordering below 10K but with different easy axis as a result of the crystal field anisotropy. The single-crystal conventional MCE values are similar or in certain circumstances even larger than the results for the polycrystalline material. The anisotropic MCE was calculated by taking the difference of the entropy change of the easy and hard magnetization directions. For both compounds, the anisotropic variation of entropy is as large as the conventional entropy change obtained by sweeping the magnetic field up to 5T. Particularly for ErGa2 an inverse MCE for a 3T field oriented along the easy axis is obtained with similar magnitude of the 5T MCE found for polycrystalline samples. The results show that by exploring anisotropic properties of the materials it is possible to obtain a significant MCE. From a technological point of view this can be an interesting alternative because the MCE is produced just by rotating the magnetic material under a constant magnetic field.
ISSN:0925-8388
1873-4669
DOI:10.1016/j.jallcom.2013.08.023