Bonilla, C.M.; Herrero-Albillos, J.; Bartolomé, F.; García, L.M.; Parra-Borderías, M.; Franco, V.: Universal behavior for magnetic entropy change in magnetocaloric materials: An analysis on the nature of phase transitions. Physical Review B 81 (2010), p. 224424/1-7
10.1103/PhysRevB.81.224424
Abstract:
A universal curve for the change in the magnetic entropy has been recently proposed for materials with second-order phase transitions. In this work we have studied the universal behavior of the magnetocaloric effect in the family of cobalt Laves phases, RCo2, and mixed manganites, La2/3(CaxSr(1−x))1/3MnO3, which exhibit first- and second-order phase transitions. The rescaled magnetic entropy change curves for different applied fields collapse onto a single curve for materials with second-order phase transition as opposed to the first-order phase transition compounds, for which this collapse does not hold. This result suggests that the universal curve may be used as a further criterion to distinguish the order of the phase transition.