Large magnetocaloric effect of RCoSn (R=Dy, Ho, Er and Tm) compounds

Materials with large magnetocaloric effect (MCE) at low temperatures under low field changes play an important role in the application of cryogenic magnetic refrigeration and attract extensive research interests of researchers. In this work, four ternary rare-earth-based RCoSn (R=Dy, Ho, Er and Tm) compounds were successfully synthesized and the crystal structure, magnetic properties, magnetic phase transition, and magnetocaloric effects were systematically studied. RCoSn (R=Dy, Ho, Er and Tm) compounds all crystallize in orthorhombic TiNiSi-type structure and undergo an antiferromagnetic (AFM) to paramagnetic (PM) transition with Neél temperature of 11.0, 7.9, 4.9 and 3.0 K, respectively. Large cryogenic MCE of RCoSn (R=Dy, Ho, Er and Tm) with the maximum magnetic entropy change ( − Δ S M max ) of 10.6, 13.7, 17.1, 13.4 J/kg K for field change of 0–5 T was obtained. Furthermore, the value of − Δ S M max for ErCoSn and TmCoSn is as high as 11.3 and 10.1 J/kg K for field change of 0–2 T, which is very competitive among low temperature magnetocaloric materials. The characteristic of second order magnetic phase transition indicates RCoSn (R=Dy, Ho, Er and Tm) compounds have good magnetic/thermal reversibility. These results show that RCoSn compounds, especially ErCoSn and TmCoSn, exhibit promising MCE and have great application potential in cryogenic magnetic refrigeration.