There is, I think, something ethereal about i —the square root of minus one. I remember first hearing about it at school. It seemed an odd beast at that time—an intruder hovering on the edge of reality.

Usually familiarity dulls this sense of the bizarre, but in the case of i it was the reverse: over the years the sense of its surreal nature intensified. It seemed that it was impossible to write mathematics that described the real world in …

I and i

The recent literature concerning the magnetocaloric effect (MCE) has been reviewed. The MCE properties have been compiled and correlations have been made comparing the behaviours of the different families of magnetic materials which exhibit large or unusual MCE values. These families include: the lanthanide (R) Laves phases (RM2, where M = Al, Co and Ni), Gd5(Si1−xGex)4 ,M n(As1−xSbx), MnFe(P1−xAsx), La(Fe13−xSix) and their hydrides and the manganites (R1−xMxMnO3, where R = lanthanide and M = Ca, Sr and Ba). The potential for use of these materials in magnetic refrigeration is discussed, including a comparison with Gd as a near room temperature active magnetic regenerator material. (Some figures in this article are in colour only in the electronic version)

https://iopscience.iop.org/article/10.1088/0034-4885/68/6/R04/pdf

Recent developments in magnetocaloric materials

In this chapter, we will restrict our attention to the ferrites and a few other closely related materials. The great interest in ferrites stems from their unique combination of a spontaneous magnetization and a high electrical resistivity. The observed magnetization results from the difference in the magnetizations of two non-equivalent sub-lattices of the magnetic ions in the crystal structure. Materials of this type should strictly be designated as “ferrimagnetic” and in some respects are more closely related to anti-ferromagnetic substances than they are to ferromagnetics in which the magnetization results from the parallel alignment of all the magnetic moments present. We shall not adhere to this special nomenclature except to emphasize effects, which are due to the existence of the sub-lattices.

Ferromagnetic materials

Surface plasmons (SPs) are coherent oscillations of conduction electrons on a metal surface excited by electromagnetic radiation at a metal -dielectric interface. The growing field of research on such light -metal interactions is known as ‘plasmonics’. 1-3 This branch of research has attracted much attention due to its potential applications in miniaturized optical devices, sensors, and photonic circuits as well as in medical diagnostics and therapeutics. 4-8

Nanostructured plasmonic sensors.

Review of the magnetocaloric effect in manganite materials

This letter reports on the superior magnetocaloric properties of La0.7Ca0.3−xSrxMnO3 (x=0.05, 0.10, 0.20, and 0.25) single crystals. Upon 50 kOe applied field, the magnetic entropy changes (ΔSM) reach values of ∼10.5, 7.45, 6.97, and 6.86J∕kgK for x=0.05, 0.10, 0.20, and 0.25 compositions, respectively. The large magnetic entropy changes have been found to occur around 300 K, thus allowing magnetic refrigeration at room temperature. Due to the absence of grains in the single crystals, the ΔSM distribution here is much more uniform than that of gadolinium and polycrystalline manganites, which is desirable for an Ericson-cycle magnetic refrigerator. The single crystals have the large magnetic entropy changes induced by low magnetic field change, which is beneficial for the household application of active magnetic refrigerant (AMR) materials. These results indicate that the present single crystals are excellent candidates as working materials for AMR.

Excellent magnetocaloric properties of La0.7Ca0.3−xSrxMnO3(0.05⩽x⩽0.25) single crystals

https://shell.cas.usf.edu/~phanm/JALCOM_22989-published.pdf

Tricritical point and critical exponents of La0.7Ca0.3−xSrxMnO3 (x = 0, 0.05, 0.1, 0.2, 0.25) single crystals

We report the results of a thorough study of the magnetocaloric effect (MCE) in a La0.7Ca0.3MnO3 single crystal, which undergoes a first-order magnetic phase transition at ∼227 K. The magnetic entropy change ΔSM and the adiabatic temperature change ΔTad reach, respectively, ∼6.42 J/kg K and 4.76 K for ΔB=5 T and even if both are smaller than those exhibited by gadolinium (∼9.8 J/kg K and ∼11.7 K), the ΔSM distribution here is much more uniform than that of gadolinium and polycrystalline manganites. This is desirable for an Ericson-cycle magnetic refrigerator. The MCE is larger in the single-crystalline manganite compared to the polycrystalline one. The manganite single crystal has large ΔSM induced by low magnetic field change, which is beneficial for the household application of active magnetic refrigerant (AMR) materials. All these make the lanthanum manganite single crystal an attractive candidate as a working substance for AMR. The molecular field model provides a fairly good description of the magnet...

Seong-Cho Yu

Papers

Review of the magnetocaloric effect in manganite materials

Excellent magnetocaloric properties of La0.7Ca0.3−xSrxMnO3(0.05⩽x⩽0.25) single crystals

Tricritical point and critical exponents of La0.7Ca0.3−xSrxMnO3 (x = 0, 0.05, 0.1, 0.2, 0.25) single crystals

Large magnetocaloric effect in a La0.7Ca0.3MnO3 single crystal

Magnetic and magnetocaloric properties of La0.7Ca0.3−xBaxMnO3 compounds