Magnetic, magnetocaloric and transport properties of CrAs0.3Sb0.7

Abstract The antiferromagnetic NiAs-type compound CrAs 0.3 Sb 0.7 exhibits a spin-reorientation transition at T t =140 K which is accompanied by a large discontinuous change of the lattice parameters and a thermal hysteresis of 20 K, while no magnetic hysteresis is observed. Around T t , an inverse magnetocaloric effect with a maximum magnetic-entropy change of 0.2 J/kg K at a field change from 0to 7 T is observed. After several thermo-cycles, a large irreversible lattice expansion of the c axis of 0.44% occurs. The irreversible lattice expansion may induce micro-cracks and leads to a sharp increase of the resistivity close to T t in the cooling process and to a shift of the resistivity curve, ρ ( T ), to higher values with increasing number of warming and cooling cycles.