Magnetic properties and large magnetocaloric effect in Laves phase metallic compound

Abstract

We investigated the magnetic properties and magnetocaloric effect of C15 Laves phase TbMn1.6Fe0.4 by magnetization and heat capacity measurements. A sharp second-order magnetic Tb-Tb ordering transition at Curie temperature TC ~ 120 K and a short-range Fe-Fe ordering transition at ~230 K are observed. Around TC, the compound shows a large magnetocaloric effect with no obvious thermal and magnetic hysteresis loss. The maximum value of magnetic entropy change reaches 8.72 J kg−1 K−1 for a magnetic field change ΔH = 7 T over a wide temperature range. The obtained relative cooling power reaches 184, 560, and 803 J kg−1 for ΔH = 2, 5 and 7 T, respectively. Large reversible magnetocaloric effect and the wide operating temperature range indicate that TbMn1.6Fe0.4 could be a promising candidate for magnetic refrigeration.