Vk. Pecharsky et Ka. Gschneidner, TUNABLE MAGNETIC REGENERATOR ALLOYS WITH A GIANT MAGNETOCALORIC EFFECT FOR MAGNETIC REFRIGERATION FROM SIMILAR-TO-20 TO SIMILAR-TO-290 K, Applied physics letters, 70(24), 1997, pp. 3299-3301
A giant magnetocaloric effect (Delta S-mag) has been discovered in the
GD(5)(SixGe1-x)(4) pseudobinary alloys, where x less than or equal to
0.5. For the temperature range between similar to 50 and similar to 2
80 K it exceeds the reversible (with respect to alternating magnetic f
ield) Delta S-mag for any known magnetic refrigerant material at the c
orresponding Curie temperature by a factor of 2-10. The two most strik
ing features of this alloy system are: (1) the first order phase trans
formation, which brings about the large Delta S-mag in Gd-5(SixGe1-x)4
, is reversible with respect to alternating magnetic field, i.e., the
giant magnetocaloric effect can be utilized in an active magnetic rege
nerator magnetic refrigerator; and (2) the ordering temperature is tun
able from similar to 30 to similar to 276 K by adjusting the Si:Ge rat
io without losing the giant magnetic entropy change. (C) 1997 American
Institute of Physics.