High performance magnetocaloric perovskites for magnetic refrigeration

We have applied mixed valance manganite perovskites as magnetocaloric materials in a magnetic refrigeration device. Relying on exact control of the composition and a technique to process the materials into single adjoined pieces, we have observed temperature spans above 9 K with two materials. Reasonable correspondence is found between experiments and a 2D numerical model, using the measured magnetocaloric properties of the two materials as input. (C) 2012 American Institute of Physics. [http://dx.doi.org/ 10.1063/1.3695338]