Influence of magnetic interactions between phases on the magnetocaloric effect of composites

Abstract

Magnetocaloric materials with coexisting magnetic phases appear either due to the phase coexistence in first order phase transitions, or due to the development of composites, which are known to enhance the refrigerant capacity and produce table-like magnetocaloric effect. However, interactions between phases are rarely considered. We have modeled the influence of interactions on the magnetocaloric effect of a biphasic composite by implementing a mean field model. Interactions shift the peak magnetic entropy change to higher temperatures than those of the pure phases and enhance the table-like character of the curves. Although there is no qualitative change of the magnetocaloric response of the composites due to interactions, the optimal fraction of phases which produces the largest enhancement of the refrigerant capacity is shifted to compositions richer in the low Curie temperature phase. This shift can be used to estimate the magnitude of the interactions in composites measured experimentally.