The anisotropic magnetocaloric effect described by Maxwell formulation: Application to DyAl2 and TbNi2

In this work we present the Maxwell-like formulation of the anisotropic magnetocaloric effect for materials in single crystalline form subjected to a rotating applied magnetic field of constant intensity. This effect is a new topic in the magnetocaloric research area and can highlight some relevant mechanisms on spin reorientation. Application of the model to the ferromagnetic compounds DyAl2 and TbNi2, which are subjected to cubic crystalline electric field anisotropy and isotropic exchange interaction, are performed. We obtain continuous and discontinuous reorientation transitions for the Cartesian components of magnetization which revealed some characteristics of the anisotropic magnetocaloric curves. (C) 2010 Elsevier B.V. All rights reserved.