Specific heat in magnetic field and magnetocaloric effects of α-R2S3 (R = Tb, Dy) single crystals

Abstract

The magnetocaloric effects (MCE) of α-Tb2S3 and α-Dy2S3 single crystals exhibiting successive antiferromagnetic (AFM) transitions have been investigated by analyzing specific heat measured in magnetic field. The temperature dependence of specific heat in the vicinity of the successive transitions shows obvious distinction depending on the orientations of the applied magnetic field for both α-Tb2S3 and α-Dy2S3 that having orthorhombic crystal structures. When the magnetic field is increased, the specific heat is as follows: For α-Tb2S3 in H‖b, the peak around TN2 shifts to lower temperature but the other one peak around TN1 barely moves; In H⊥b, the peak around TN2 has no shift almost within 3 T but suddenly moves to lower temperature in 4 T and the other one peak around TN1 shifts to lower temperature in specific heat versus temperature. In the case of α-Dy2S3, the two peaks around TN2 and TN1 shift to lower temperatures in H‖b but move to higher temperatures when the magnetic field is increased up to 5 T by H⊥b in spite of antiferromagnetic transitions. Therefore, the maximum value and corresponding temperature of both isothermal magnetic entropy change (ΔSm) and adiabatic temperature change (ΔTad) in the magnetic field H⊥b are extremely different in low temperature range from that in the field of H‖b. The results propone that the MCE of α-Tb2S3 and α-Dy2S3 could be controlled at low temperature by the magnitude and orientation of magnetic field. It also indicates that the refrigerating capacity and thermal absorption capacity will be controlled by changing magnitude and orientation of magnetic field on the α-Tb2S3 and α-Dy2S3 single crystals.