Metamagnetic transition, magnetocaloric effect and electronic structure of the rare-earth anti-perovskite SnOEu3

Abstract

Rare-earth anti-perovskites with oxygen are an interesting magnetic materials family at the boundary between intermetallics and oxides, they however remain largely unexplored. Here, magnetic and heat capacity investigations, as well as density functional theory (DFT) calculations, were carried out on SnOEu3. At low magnetic field (B ≤ 0.5 T), a Néel temperature separates antiferromagnetic and paramagnetic phases at 31 K. When applying higher magnetic field below the Néel temperature, successive transformations toward a ferromagnetic state via a number of intermediate canted magnetic structures are observed and are associated with only modest latent heat and transition entropy. High-pressure magnetic measurements confirm the stable divalent state of Eu up to 1.05 GPa. A direct magnetocaloric effect progressively increases with applied magnetic field above the Néel temperature, reaching −16 J kg–1 K−1 for ΔB = 7 T. On the other hand, the inverse magnetocaloric effect of the field-induced transition below TN saturates at ~+5 J kg−1 K−1. DFT calculations support magnetic instabilities observed experimentally in SnOEu3 and reveal an unusual exchange mechanism and band topology near the Fermi level.