Effects of hydrostatic pressure on magnetostructural transitions and magnetocaloric properties in (MnNiSi)1−<i>x</i>(FeCoGe)<i>x</i>

Abstract

The isostructural alloying of two compounds with different magnetic and thermo-structural properties has resulted in a new system, (MnNiSi)1−x(FeCoGe)x, that exhibits large magnetocaloric effects with acute sensitivity to both compositional variation and applied hydrostatic pressure. The maximum isothermal entropy change reaches a value of −ΔSmax = 143.7 J/kg K for a field change of ΔB = 5 T at atmospheric pressure. The first-order magnetostructural transition responsible for the entropy change shifts to lower temperature with applied hydrostatic pressure (∼−10 K/kbar) but maintains a large value of −ΔSmax.