Effect of Single-ion Anisotropy on Magnetocaloric Properties of Frustrated Spin-$s$ Ising Nanoclusters

Abstract

Effects of a single-ion anisotropy on magnetocaloric properties of selected spin-s ≥ 1 antiferromagnetic Ising clusters with frustration-inducing triangular geometry are studied by exact enumeration. It is found that inclusion of the single-ion anisotropy parameter D can result in a much more complex ground-state behavior, which is also reflected in a magnetocaloric effect (MCE) at finite temperatures. For negative D (easy-plane anisotropy) with increasing s the ground-state magnetization as a function of the external field gradually shows increasing number of plateaus of various heights. Except for the cases of integer s with D < D 0 ≤ 0, the first magnetization plateau is of non-zero height. This property facilitates an enhanced MCE in the adiabatic demagnetization process in the form of an abrupt decrease in temperature as the magnetic field vanishes to zero. The cooling rate can be considerably enhanced in the systems with larger s and D > 0 (easy-axis anisotropy), albeit its dependence on these parameters is strongly dependent on the cluster geometry. From the studied systems more favorable conditions for observing a giant MCE were found in the 2CS cluster, consisting of two corner-sharing tetrahedra, the experimental realization of which could be technologically used for efficient refrigeration to ultra-low temperatures.