Anisotropic magnetocaloric effect and magnetoresistance in antiferromagnetic HoNiGe3 single crystal

We report anisotropic magnetocaloric effect and magnetoresistance in antiferromagnetic HoNiGe3 single crystal grown by Ge flux method. HoNiGe3 single crystal exhibits antiferromagnetic order and large magnetocrystalline anisotropy below the Neel temperature T-N = 10.5 K. Meanwhile, with increasing the magnetic field, HoNiGe3 undergoes the spin-flip transition induced by the magnetic field along the a axis, while the spin-flop transition occurs for the field along the other orientations, which gives rise to anisotropic magnetoresistance behavior along three axes. With the magnetic field change of 0-50 kOe, the maximum magnetic entropy changes obtained along the a, b, and c axes are -13.9, -2.5 and -7.7 J kg(-1)K(-1), respectively. The maximum rotating magnetic entropy change is -12.3 J kg(-1)K(-1) under 50 kOe by rotating the magnetic field from the b axis to the a axis, and the corresponding refrigeration capacity is 193 J/kg, which demonstrates HoNiGe3 to be an attractive candidate for novel rotating magnetic refrigeration at low temperature region.

Automated summary

The antiferromagnetic HoNiGe3 single crystal grown by Ge flux method exhibits anisotropic magnetocaloric effect and magnetoresistance, with spin-flip and spin-flop transitions occurring along different orientations. The maximum magnetic entropy changes and refrigeration capacity show HoNiGe3 to be a promising candidate for novel rotating magnetic refrigeration at low temperatures.