Effect of the Si/B ratio on the magnetic anisotropy distribution of Fe73.5Si22.52xBxCu1Nb3 „x57,9,16… alloys along nanocrystallization

The effect of the Si/B ratio on the magnetic anisotropy distribution of Fe73.5Si22.52xBxCu1Nb3 (x57,9,16) alloys has been studied. The influence of isochronal annealing on the hysteresis loop of the three studied alloys has been analyzed. They present two minima in coercivity: the first one can be ascribed to structural relaxation, and the second one is related to the averaging of the magnetocrystalline anisotropy, as predicted by the random anisotropy model. The relative importance of both minima changes with Si content: the lower the Si content, the more effective the structural relaxation and the less important the second minimum are. The mean value of the magnetic anisotropy distribution presents a similar behavior, evidencing the growing importance of the magnetoelastic anisotropy for the relaxed amorphous samples as the Si content is increased. From the evolution of the magnetic anisotropy distribution along nanocrystallization and the microstructural information obtained from transmission electron microscopy images, the behavior of the coercivity minima with changes in Si content can be ascribed to a different degree in compensation of magnetoelastic anisotropy due to the contributions of different signs coming from the nanocrystals and the amorphous matrixCICYT. Gobierno Español-MAT95-0961-CO2-0

Setting the basis for the interpretation of temperature first order reversal curve (TFORC) distributions of magnetocaloric materials

First Order Reversal Curve (FORC) distributions of magnetic materials are a well-known tool to extract information about hysteresis sources and magnetic interactions, or to fingerprint them. Recently, a temperature variant of this analysis technique (Temperature-FORC, TFORC) has been used for the analysis of the thermal hysteresis associated with first-order magnetocaloric materials. However, the theory supporting the interpretation of the diagrams is still lacking, limiting TFORC to a fingerprinting technique so far. This work is a first approach to correlate the modeling of first-order phase transitions, using the Bean–Rodbell model combined with a phenomenological transformation mechanism, with the features observed in experimental TFORC distributions of magnetocaloric materials. The different characteristics of the transformations, e.g., transition temperatures, symmetry, temperature range, etc., are correlated to distinct features of the distributions. We show a catalogue of characteristic TFORC distributions for magnetocaloric materials that exhibit some of the features observed experimentally.Army Research Laboratory W911NF-19-2-021

Reversibility of the Magnetocaloric Effect in the Bean-Rodbell Model

The applicability of magnetocaloric materials is limited by irreversibility. In this work, we evaluate the reversible magnetocaloric response associated with magnetoelastic transitions in the framework of the Bean-Rodbell model. This model allows the description of both second- and first-order magnetoelastic transitions by the modification of the η parameter (η1 for first-order ones). The response is quantified via the Temperature-averaged Entropy Change (TEC), which has been shown to be an easy and effective figure of merit for magnetocaloric materials. A strong magnetic field dependence of TEC is found for first-order transitions, having a significant increase when the magnetic field is large enough to overcome the thermal hysteresis of the material observed at zero field. This field value, as well as the magnetic field evolution of the transition temperature, strongly depend on the atomic magnetic moment of the material. For a moderate magnetic field change of 2 T, first-order transitions with η≈1.3−1.8 have better TEC than those corresponding to stronger first-order transitions and even second-order ones.Universidad de Sevilla US-1260179Junta de Andalucía P18-RT-746Army Research Laboratory W911NF192021

Nanostructuring as a procedure to control the field dependence of the magnetocaloric effect

In this work, the field dependence of the magnetocaloric effect of Gd bulk samples has been enhanced through nanostructuring of the material. Nanostructuring consists in multilayers preparation by alternative rf-sputtering deposition of Gd layers and Ti spacers onto glass substrates. The results obtained for the multilayers were compared to those obtained for the Gd bulk. Assuming a power law for the field dependence of the magnetic entropy change (ΔSM ∝ Hn ), higher field dependences close to the transition in a wider temperature range are obtained for the multilayer material (n = 1.0) with respect to the bulk counterpart (n = 0.78). The effect of a Curie temperature distribution in the multilayer material (due to variations of the layer thickness) has been studied through numerical simulations to explain the observed field dependence of the magnetocaloric effect, obtaining a remarkable agreement between experiments and results.Ministerio de Economía y Competitividad español y EU-FEDER. MAT2013-45165-P y MAT2016-77265-RMinistry of Education and Science of the Russian Federation. Project No. 258

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

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

Universal behavior for magnetic entropy change in magnetocaloric materials: An analysis on the nature of phase transitions

A universal curve for the change in the magnetic entropy has been recently proposed for materials with second-order phase transitions. In this work we have studied the universal behavior of the magnetocaloric effect in the family of cobalt Laves phases, RCo2, and mixed manganites, La2/3(CaxSr(1−x))1/3MnO3, which exhibit first- and second-order phase transitions. The rescaled magnetic entropy change curves for different applied fields collapse onto a single curve for materials with second-order phase transition as opposed to the first-order phase transition compounds, for which this collapse does not hold. This result suggests that the universal curve may be used as a further criterion to distinguish the order of the phase transition

Relationship between coercivity and magnetic moment of superparamagnetic particles with dipolar interaction

The temperature dependence of the hysteresis loops of Nanoperm-type alloys has been studied. In the high-temperature region above the coercivity maximum, the response of the system can be modeled as that of dipolar-interaction superparamagnetic particles, considering a mean interaction field. Special attention has been paid to the influence of the particle size distribution on the applicability of the mean-field model. The two main effects of the dipolar interaction (coercivity and distortion of the thermal dependence of the apparent magnetic moment) have been correlated

The influence of Co addition on the magnetocaloric effect of Nanoperm-type amorphous alloys

The effect of Co addition on the magnetocaloric effect of amorphous alloys with Nanoperm-type composition has been studied for temperatures above room temperature. Co addition produces an increase in the maximum magnetic entropy change and a shift of its associated temperature to higher temperatures. The maximum refrigerant capacity (RC) value obtained in this study is 82 J kg−1 for a maximum applied field H = 15 kOe. This value is �30% larger than that of a Mo-containing Finemet-type alloy measured under the same experimental conditions. However, the RC of the alloys, when calculated from temperatures corresponding to the half-maximum entropy change value, deteriorates with the presence of Co in the alloy. The field dependence of the magnetic entropy change has also been analyzed, showing a power dependence for all the magnetic regimes of the samples. This field dependence at the Curie temperature deviates from mean field predictions

Mössbauer study of a Fe–Zr–B–Cu–(Ge, Co) nanocrystalline alloy series

Amorphous and nanocrystalline Fe–Zr–B–Cu alloys with partial substitution of Co for Fe and Ge for B have been studied by Mössbauer spectrometry (MS). The compositional and microstructural dependence of the different hyperfine parameters were related to the results obtained by X-ray diffraction (XRD) and saturation magnetization measurements. Combination of MS and XRD leads to estimate an interface region, of thickness ∼0.6 nm. The magnetic moment per transition metal of the crystalline phase is reduced with respect to binary crystalline alloys due to the existence of the interfac

Applicability of scaling behavior and power laws in the analysis of the magnetocaloric effect in second-order phase transition materials

In recent years, universal scaling has gained renewed attention in the study of magnetocaloric materials. It has been applied to a wide variety of pure elements and compounds, ranging from rare earth-based materials to transition metal alloys, from bulk crystalline samples to nanoparticles. It is therefore necessary to quantify the limits within which the scaling laws would remain applicable for magnetocaloric research. For this purpose, a threefold approach has been followed: a) the magnetocaloric responses of a set of materials with Curie temperatures ranging from 46 to 336 K have been modeled with a mean-field Brillouin model, b) experimental data for Gd has been analyzed, and c) a 3D-Ising model ---which is beyond the mean-field approximation--- has been studied. In this way we can demonstrate that the conclusions extracted in this work are model-independent. It is found that universal scaling remains applicable up to applied fields which provide a magnetic energy to the system up to 8\% of the thermal energy at the Curie temperature. In this range, the predicted deviations from scaling laws remain below the experimental error margin of carefully performed experiments. Therefore, for materials whose Curie temperature is close to room temperature, scaling laws at the Curie temperature would be applicable for the magnetic field range available at conventional magnetism laboratories (∼10 T), well above the fields which are usually available for magnetocaloric device