Effect of Mn-site doping on the magnetofunctional behaviors of Mn5Si3 alloy

Abstract

Present work reports a detailed investigation on the magnetoresistance and magnetocaloric behavior of Ni and Cr-doped Mn5Si3 alloys with general formula Mn5−xAxSi3 (where A = Ni/Cr; x = 0, 0.05, 0.1 and 0.2). Both pure (undoped) and doped alloys show a reasonably large amount of magnetoresistance (MR). Doping at Mn-site, both by Ni and Cr, results in a monotonic decrease in MR values. Magnetocaloric effect (MCE), on the other hand, is found to be interesting, and all the alloys show both conventional and inverse MCE around the magneto-structural transition temperature. Among the two types of MCE observed, the inverse MCE is found to decrease with increasing doping concentration and consistent with the MR behavior, whereas doping results in a significant increase in conventional MCE values.