High-entropy bulk metallic glasses as promising magnetic refrigerants

In this paper, the Ho20Er20Co20Al20RE20 (RE = Gd, Dy, and Tm) high-entropy bulk metallic glasses (HE-BMGs) with good magnetocaloric properties are fabricated successfully. The HE-BMGs exhibit a second-order magnetic phase transition. The peak of magnetic entropy change (Delta S-M (pk)) and refrigerant capacity (RC) reaches 15.0 J kg(-1) K-1 and 627 J kg(-1) at 5 T, respectively, which is larger than most rare earth based BMGs. The heterogeneous nature of glasses also contributes to the large Delta S-M (pk) and RC. In addition, the magnetic ordering temperature, Delta S-M (pk) and RC can be widely tuned by alloying different rare earth elements. These results suggest that the HE-BMGs are promising magnetic refrigerant at low temperatures. (C) 2015 AIP Publishing LLC.