Magnetocaloric effect in the ternary silicide Gd₃NiSi₂

Sophie Tencé (1, 2) , Stéphane Gorsse (1) , Etienne Gaudin (1) , Bernard Chevalier (1)

1 ICMCB - Institut de Chimie de la Matière Condensée de Bordeaux
2 LLB - UMR 12 - Laboratoire Léon Brillouin

Gd₃NiSi₂ annealed sample has been investigated by magnetization, electrical resistivity and specific heat measurements. This study reveals its ferromagnetic behavior below T_C = 215 K; only the gadolinium carries a magnetic moment with a saturation magnetization of 7.19 μ_B/Gd mol. Gd₃NiSi₂ exhibits a magnetocaloric effect higher in magnetic entropy change than the one recently reported for Gd₆Ni_5/3Si₃. This ternary silicide can be obtained as metallic ribbons where the structural disordering modifies strongly its magnetocaloric properties.

Keywords: Rare-earth intermetallics; Magnetic properties; Thermal properties; Rapid solidification processing; Magnetic applications

Domains: Material chemistry

Sophie Tencé, Stéphane Gorsse, Etienne Gaudin, Bernard Chevalier. Magnetocaloric effect in the ternary silicide Gd₃NiSi₂. Intermetallics, 2009, 17 (3), pp.115-119. ⟨10.1016/j.intermet.2008.10.004⟩. ⟨hal-00358130⟩