To present day, the maximum magnetocaloric effect (MCE) at room temperature for a magnetic field change of 5 T is 40 J/(kg K) for MnAs. In this Letter we present colossal MCE measurements on MnAs under pressure, reaching values up to 267 J/(kg K), far greater than the magnetic limit arising from the assumption of magnetic field independence of the lattice and electronic entropy contributions. The origin of the effect is the contribution to the entropy variation coming from the lattice through the magnetoelastic coupling.

The magnetocaloric effect (MCE) is the basis for magnetic refrigeration, and can replace conventional gas compression technology due to its superior efficiency and environment friendliness. MCE materials must exhibit a large temperature variation in response to an adiabatic magnetic-field variation and a large isothermal entropic effect is also expected. In this respect, MnAs shows the colossal MCE, but the effect appears under high pressures. In this work, we report on the properties of Mn(1-x)Fe(x)As that exhibit the colossal effect at ambient pressure. The MCE peak varies from 285 K to 310 K depending on the Fe concentration. Although a large thermal hysteresis is observed, the colossal effect at ambient pressure brings layered magnetic regenerators with huge refrigerating power closer to practical applications around room temperature.

Despite a plethora of materials suggested for spintronic applications, a new class of materials has emerged, namely spin gapless semiconductors (SGS) that offers potentially more advantageous properties than existing ones. These magnetic semiconductors exhibit a finite band gap for one spin channel and a closed gap for the other. Here, supported by electronicstructure calculations, we report the first experimental evidence of SGS behavior in equiatomic quaternary CoFeCrGa, having a cubic Heusler (prototype LiMgPdSn) structure but exhibiting chemical disorder (DO 3 structure). CoFeCrGa is found to transform from SGS to half-metallic phase under pressure, which is attributed to unique electronic-structure features. The saturation magnetization (M S ) obtained at 8 K agrees with the Slater-Pauling rule and the Curie temperature (T C ) is found to exceed 400 K. Carrier concentration (up to 250 K) and electrical conductivity are observed to be nearly temperature independent, prerequisites for SGS. The anomalous Hall coefficient is estimated to be 185 S/cm at 5 K.Considering the SGS properties and high T C , this material appears to be promising for spintronic applications.

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