Magnetic properties, critical behavior and magnetocaloric effect in the nanocrystalline Pr2Fe16Al

Abstract

We report the correlation between critical behavior and magnetocaloric effect around magnetic phase transition temperature, using magnetization isotherms of Pr2Fe16Al. We used four techniques to determine the critical exponents: the Modified Arrott plot, Kouvel-Fisher plot, critical isotherm technique, and magnetocaloric effect method. The critical exponents values for Pr2Fe16Al are similar to that found by the 3D-Heisenberg model. The validity and the reliability of our critical exponents were confirmed. The isotherm M(H) curves below and above the critical temperatures collapse into two independent universal branches with the found critical exponents. The exponents determined in this study are close to those calculated from the results of the renormalization group approach for a heuristic model of three-dimensional Heisenberg (d = 3, n = 3). A correlation between critical behavior and magnetocaloric effect is demonstrated.