The multicaloric effect in multiferroic materials

A new solid-state caloric effect, the multicaloric effect in multiferroic materials, is theoretically introduced here for the first time. The multicaloric effect is defined as the adiabatic reversible temperature change in multiferroic materials activated by electric or magnetic fields. It is shown that the multicaloric effect in strongly coupled multiferroics may induce temperature changes significantly greater to those achieved in the existing barocaloric, elastocaloric, magnetocaloric or electrocaloric effects. The theoretical equations describing the multicaloric effect have been numerically applied to NdCrTiO5 multiferroic material predicting a cooling of 6.88 K during the adiabatic demagnetization from applied fields of 5 to 0 Tesla, at its multiferroic transition temperature of 21 K. This new effect offers the prospect of efficient, environmentally friendly solid-state refrigeration systems based on the multicaloric effect in multiferroic materials. Crown Copyright (c) 2012 Published by Elsevier Ltd. All rights reserved.