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Ambient pressure colossal magnetocaloric effect tuned by composition in Mn1−xFexAs

Nature Materials volume 5, pages 802–804 (2006)Cite this article

Abstract

The magnetocaloric effect (MCE) is the basis for magnetic refrigeration, and can replace conventional gas compression technology due to its superior efficiency and environment friendliness1,2,3. MCE materials must exhibit a large temperature variation in response to an adiabatic magnetic-field variation and a large isothermal entropic effect is also expected. In this respect, MnAs shows the colossal MCE, but the effect appears under high pressures4. In this work, we report on the properties of Mn1−xFexAs that exhibit the colossal effect at ambient pressure. The MCE peak varies from 285 K to 310 K depending on the Fe concentration. Although a large thermal hysteresis is observed, the colossal effect at ambient pressure brings layered magnetic regenerators with huge refrigerating power closer to practical applications around room temperature.

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Figure 1: The effect on magnetization from Fe substitution for Mn in MnAs.
Figure 2: The effect on transition temperature and hysteresis from Fe substitution for Mn in MnAs.
Figure 3: Behaviour of Mn1−xFexAs magnetization at low temperatures and around the Curie point.
Figure 4: The colossal effect for Mn1−xFexAs as a function of temperature and Fe content for a magnetic field variation of 5 T.

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Acknowledgements

The authors acknowledge financial support from Fapesp—Fundação de Amparo à Pesquisa do Estado de S. Paulo, CNPq—Conselho Nacional de Desenvolvimento Científico e Tecnológico and from Capes—Coordenação de Aperfeiçoamento do Pessoal de Nível Superior.

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  1. Instituto de Física Gleb Wataghin, Universidade Estadual de Campinas - UNICAMP, Campinas, S. Paulo, 13083-970, Caixa Postal 6165, Brazil

    Ariana de Campos, Daniel L Rocco, Alexandre Magnus G. Carvalho, Luana Caron, Adelino A. Coelho, Sergio Gama, Luzeli M. da Silva, Flávio C. G. Gandra, Adenilson O. dos Santos & Lisandro P. Cardoso

  2. Instituto de Física, Universidade do Estado do Rio de Janeiro—UERJ, Rua São Francisco Xavier, 524, RJ, 20550-013, Brazil

    Pedro J. von Ranke & Nilson A. de Oliveira

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  1. Ariana de Campos
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Correspondence to Sergio Gama.

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de Campos, A., Rocco, D., Carvalho, A. et al. Ambient pressure colossal magnetocaloric effect tuned by composition in Mn1−xFexAs. Nature Mater 5, 802–804 (2006). https://doi.org/10.1038/nmat1732

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