Glass formation, magnetic properties and magnetocaloric effect of ternary Ho–Al–Co bulk metallic glass

Abstract A ternary Ho–Al–Co system with high glass-forming ability (GFA) was developed and fully glassy rods with diameters up to 1 cm can be produced for the best glass former of Ho 55 Al 27.5 Co 17.5 alloy. The thermal stability and low-temperature magnetic properties of the Ho 55 Al 27.5 Co 17.5 bulk metallic glass (BMG) were studied. The magnetic transition temperature of this alloy is ∼14 K as determined by the thermomagnetic measurement. Two indicators, i.e. isothermal magnetic entropy change (Δ S M ) and the relative cooling power (RCP), were adopted to evaluate the magnetocaloric effect (MCE) of the alloy under a low magnetic field up to 2 T, which can be generated by permanent magnets. The values of |Δ S M | and RCP are 7.98 J kg −1 K −1 and 191.5 J kg −1 , respectively. The Ho 55 Al 27.5 Co 17.5 BMG with good MCE and high GFA provides an attractive candidate for magnetic refrigeration applications, like hydrogen liquefaction and storage.