Irreversibility of field-induced magnetostructural transition in NiCoMnSb shape memory alloy revealed by magnetization, transport and heat capacity studies

The effects of magnetic field on the martensitic transition have been studied in Ni45Co5Mn38Sb12. We find a large field-induced irreversibility in this system, as revealed by the field dependence of resistivity, magnetization, and heat capacity data. At the critical temperature, the field-induced conversion of the martensitic to austenite phase is not reversible under any field variation. At this temperature any energy fluctuation induces nucleation and growth of the equilibrium austenite phase at the expense of the metastable martensitic phase and gets arrested. All these three measurements completely rule out the coexistence of austenite and martensitic phases in the irreversibility regime.Comment: 13 pages, 4 figure

Heat capacity and magnetoresistance in Dy(Co,Si)2 compounds

Magnetocaloric effect and magnetoresistance have been studied in Dy(Co1-xSix)2 [x=0, 0.075 and 0.15] compounds. Magnetocaloric effect has been calculated in terms of adiabatic temperatue change (Delta Tad) as well as isothermal magnetic entropy change (Delta SM) using the heat capacity data. The maximum values of DeltaSM and DeltaTad for DyCo2 are found to be 11.4 JKg-1K-1 and 5.4 K, respectively. Both DSM and DTad decrease with Si concentration, reaching a value of 5.4 JKg-1K-1 and 3 K, respectively for x=0.15. The maximum magnetoresistance is found to about 32% in DyCo2, which decreases with increase in Si. These variations are explained on the basis of itinerant electron metamagnetism occurring in these compounds.Comment: Total 8 pages of text and figure