First-order phase transition in perovskites Pr0.67Sr0.33MnO3 – magneto-caloric properties – effect of multi-spin interaction

Abstract

We show by extensive Monte Carlo simulations that we need a multi-spin interaction in addition to pairwise interactions in order to reproduce the temperature dependence of the experimental magnetization observed in the perovskite compound Pr0.67Sr0.33MnO3. The multi-spin interaction is introduced in the Hamiltonian as follows: each spin interacts simultaneously with its four nearest-neighbors. It does not have the reversal invariance as in a pairwise interaction where reversing the directions of two spins leaves the interaction energy invariant. As a consequence, it competes with the pairwise interactions between magnetic ions. The multi-spin interaction allows the sample magnetization M to increase, to decrease or to have a plateau with increasing T. In this paper we show that M increases with increasing T before making a vertical fall at the transition temperature TC, in contrast to the usual decrease of M with increasing T in most of magnetic systems. This result is in an excellent agreement with the experimental data observed in Pr0.67Sr0.33MnO3. Furthermore, we show by the energy histogram taken at TC that the transition is clearly of first order. We also calculate the magnetic entropy change |ΔSm| and the Relative Cooling Power (RCP) by using the set of curves of M obtained under an applied magnetic field H varying from 0 to 5 T across the transition temperature region. We obtain a good agreement with experiments on |ΔSm| and the values of RCP. This perovskite compound has a good potential in refrigeration application due to its high RCP.