Structural, magnetic, transport and magnetocaloric properties of metamagnetic DyMn 0.5 Co 0.5 O 3

• Published in: Journal of applied physics 2012-02, Vol.111 (7), p.07A914-07A914-3
• Main Authors: Ganeshraj, C., Pradheesh, R., Santhosh, P. N.
• Format: Article
• ISSN: 0021-8979; 1089-7550
• DOI: 10.1063/1.3672067

Rietveld refinement of the powder diffraction data revealed that DyMn 0.5 Co 0.5 O 3 (DMCO) crystallized in an orthorhombic structure containing distorted Mn/Co−O 6 octahedra (sp.gr= Pnma ; a=5.5922(1) Å, b=7.4987(1) Å, c=5.2606(1) Å). Below 85K, the field cooled magnetization data shows a spontaneous magnetic ordering. The metamagnetic behavior of the sample is evident from the nature of variation of magnetization with applied magnetic field. The field dependent magnetization at 5K, points out the Mn and Co ions are aligned ferromagnetically, whereas Dy and Mn-Co sublattices are coupled antiferromagnetically. The magnitude of isothermal magnetic entropy change, |ΔS M | max is∼9.30J kg −1 K −1 in the vicinity of magnetic ordering of Dy 3+ for the field change of 7T, is appreciable to consider DyMn 0.5 Co 0.5 O 3 as a magnetic refrigerant at low temperatures. The temperature variation of electrical resistivity shows the highly insulating nature of the sample.