Giant magnetocaloric effects near room temperature in Mn1-xCuxCoGe

Magnetic and structural transitions were found to coincide by substituting Cu for Mn in Mn1-xCuxCoGe, leading to a giant magnetocaloric effects associated with the first-order magnetostructural phase transition from the ferromagnetic to paramagnetic state. Maximum magnetic entropy changes of -Delta S-M = 52.5 and 53.3 J/kg K for a magnetic field change of Delta H = 5 T have been observed at 302 and 316 K, for x = 0.080 and 0.085, respectively. The giant magnetocaloric effects with tunable phase transition temperatures through subtle variations in composition make this system promising for room-temperature magnetic cooling applications. (C) 2012 American Institute of Physics. [http://dx.doi.org/10.1063/1.4770379]