Pedro Jorge von Ranke

The magnetic and magnetocaloric properties of Gd5Ge2Si2 compound under hydrostatic pressure

The Gd5Ge2Si2 compound presents a giant magnetocaloric effect with transition temperature at around 276 K and is a very good candidate for application as an active regenerator material in room temperature magnetic refrigerators. Recently it has been shown that pressure induces a colossal magnetocaloric effect in MnAs, a material that presents a giant magnetocaloric effect and a strong magnetoelastic coupling, as also happens with the Gd5Ge2Si2 compound. This motivated a search of the colossal effect in the Gd5Ge2Si2 compound. This work reports our measurements on the magnetic properties and the magnetocaloric effect of Gd5Ge2Si2 under hydrostatic pressures up to 9.2 kbar and as a function of temperature. Contrary to what happens with MnAs, pressure increases the Curie temperature of the compound, does not affect the saturation magnetization and decreases markedly its magnetocaloric effect.

Ambient pressure colossal magnetocaloric effect in Mn1−xCuxAs compounds

Magnetic refrigeration is a good alternative to gas compression technology due to higher efficiency and environmental concerns. Magnetocaloric materials must exhibit large adiabatic temperature variations and a large entropic effect. MnAs shows the colossal magnetocaloric effect under high pressures or with Fe doping. In this work the authors introduce a class of materials—Mn1−xCuxAs—revealing a peak colossal effect of −175J∕(Kkg) for a 5T field variation at 318K and ambient pressure.

A singlet-triplet model for praseodymium intermetallics in cubic symmetry: application to PrAl2

It is well known that the exchange interaction between the spins of the rare-earth ions and the crystal field acting on the 4f-electrons are key factors which determine the magnetic behaviour of this system. In this paper we adopt a simplified description of the crystal field, keeping only the two lowest levels associated to the splitting caused by the crystal field on the 4f-state. Using the wave functions of these two levels, which are taken as singlet (ground level) and triplet (excited level), we construct an effective Hamiltonian in matrix notation which includes the crystal field and magnetic interactions and from this Hamiltonian we derive a set of magnetic state equations. Finally, this study is applied to the available experimental data of PrAl2.

The behaviour of the Landé factor and effective exchange parameter in a group of Pr intermetallics observed through reduced level scheme models

The present work constitutes a portion of a continuing series of studies dealing with models, in which we retain only the two lowest levels of the crystal field splitting scheme of rare-earth ion in rare-earth intermetallics. In these reduced level scheme models, the crystal field and the magnetic Hamiltonians are represented in matrix notation. These two matrices constitute the model Hamiltonian proposed in this paper, from which we derive the magnetic state equations of interest for this work. Putting into these equations a group of adequate experimental data found in the literature for a particular rare-earth intermetallic we obtain the Lande factor and effective exchange parameter related to this rare-earth intermetallic. This study will be applied to a group of Pr intermetallics, in cubic symmetry, in which the ground level may be a non-magnetic singlet level or a non-magnetic doublet level. In both cases, the first excited level is a triplet one.