Suppression of magnetostructural transition on GdSiGe thin film after thermal cyclings

Evolution of two-step magnetic transition on nanogranular Gd5Si1.3Ge2.7 thin film

“…In particular such an arrest phenomena is known to be enhanced in size-conned samples [46,48,49]. Another observable feature is the overall magnetization decrease after thermal cycling, which had already been observed in a previous study [42].…”

“…In addition to microdevice refrigeration, including solidstate microrefrigerators [20] with thermal switches [21], the micro and nanoscale magnetocaloric materials have a wide range of applications such as magnetic nanofluids [31], flexible energy harvesting devices [32], hyperthermia cancer treatment [33] and negative thermal expansion [34] as thorougly reviewed in the following references [1,3,[35][36][37]. In the past few years, our team has been focused on the size-confinement of the R 5 (Si x Ge 1−x ) 4 compounds [34,[38][39][40][41] with a particular focus on the transitions kinetics and their evolution with both thermal cycles [41] and heat treatments [40]. As the micro and nanoscale miniaturization is still at an early stage, there are many open questions to be answered.…”

Magnetocaloric materials: From micro- to nanoscale

“…Further studies demonstrated that this thin film presents low-resistance to thermal cycles, leading to a suppression of its magnetostructural transition when the number of cycles increases beyond 1000. 67 Similar to the bulk behavior, it is also possible to tune the thin film Curie temperature and its preferred atomic structure by post-heat treatments, although in contrast with the high-temperatures needed for the bulk counterparts (1000-1300°C), in the thin film smaller temperatures are required (400-600°C). 68…”

Managing hysteresis of Gd5Si2Ge2 by magnetic field cycling

“…As far as we are aware, only one similar system, i.e., a thin film of Gd 5 Si 1.3 Ge 2.7 , has been examined in the past, where cycling of the film through the magnetostructural transformation reduces its magnetocaloric effect, mostly due to lower crystallinity and a reduced fraction of the Sm 5 Ge 4 -type phase. 42…”