Effect of temperature and magnetic field induced hysteresis on reversibility of magnetocaloric effect and its minimization by optimizing the geometrical compatibility condition in Mn–Ni–Fe–Si alloy

Abstract

The advancement of magnetic materials with coupled magneto-structural phase transition (MST) to fulfill the ultimate objectives of practical solid-state cooling applications requires a better understanding of the hysteresis phenomenon linked across the phase transition region along with the large magnetocaloric parameters. For the present sample Mn0.65Ni0.65Fe0.70Si, the MST is associated with a sharp jump in magnetization along with a small thermal hysteresis of ∼13 K. A giant isothermal magnetic entropy change (|ΔSMmax|) of ∼37.6 J kg−1 K−1 at 299 K and effective refrigerant capacity (RCeffe) of ∼214.3 J kg−1 under ΔH = 30 kOe is obtained with excellent compatibility between the martensite and austenite phases. The geometrical compatibility condition, i.e., very small (∼0.55%) deviation of the middle eigenvalue (λ2) from unity justifies the observation of small hysteresis in the present material. The investigation of hysteresis behavior under different extents of the driving forces (temperature or magnetic field) reveals that both the driving forces trigger equally the phase transition and are responsible equivalently for the hysteresis phenomenon. The present study provides a pathway to understand the complexity of the hysteresis behavior, its impact on the reversibility of magnetocaloric effect, and its minimization by optimizing the geometrical compatibility condition between the austenite and martensite phases.