Abstract
The rare-earths (RE) based materials with large magnetocaloric effect (MCE) have been recently recognized as potential candidates for practical solid-state magnetic refrigeration. In this work, the two light RE-based ternary RECu2Si2 (RE = Nd and Pr) compounds were fabricated by arc-melting method and investigated the structural, magnetic and magnetocaloric properties. Both RECu2Si2 compounds are found to crystallize in a ThCr2Si2-type layered crystal structure with the I4/mmm space group and undergo a field-induced first-ordered magnetic transition (MT) around 13.6 and 3.5 K for NdCu2Si2 and PrCu2Si2, respectively. Large reversible MCE has been observed in both RECu2Si2 compounds, and the magnetocaloric parameters of the maximum isothermal magnetic entropy change (-ΔSMmax) and relative cooling power (RCP) with the magnetic field change (ΔH) of 0–7 T are determined to be 5.9 J/kg-K and 82.6 J/kg for NdCu2Si2 compound and to be 8.0 J/kg-K and 67.2 J/kg for PrCu2Si2 compound, respectively.
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