Unusual first-order magnetic phase transition and large magnetocaloric effect in <mml:math xmlns:mml="http://www.w3.org/1998/Math/MathML"><mml:mrow><mml:msub><mml:mi>Nd</mml:mi><mml:mn>2</mml:mn></mml:msub><mml:mi>In</mml:mi></mml:mrow></mml:math>
Anis Biswas, Rajiv K. Chouhan, Alex Thayer, Yaroslav Mudryk, Ihor Z. Hlova, Oleksandr Dolotko, V. K. Pecharsky
Abstract
A large magnetocaloric effect with its maximum near the boiling point of natural gas occurs in a rare-earth intermetallic compound ${\mathrm{Nd}}_{2}\mathrm{In}$. While behaviors of physical properties indicate that paramagnetic-ferromagnetic transformation supporting the large magnetocaloric effect is first order in nature, temperature-dependent crystallographic study reveals no changes in lattice symmetry and lack of discontinuities either in phase volume or lattice parameters. The borderline first-order nature of phase transformation in ${\mathrm{Nd}}_{2}\mathrm{In}$ is markedly different from conventional first-order magnetic transitions occurring in other members of the family -- isostructural ${\mathrm{Pr}}_{2}\mathrm{In}$ and nonisostructural ${\mathrm{Eu}}_{2}\mathrm{In}$.