Anisotropic magnetocaloric effect in Fe${}_{3-x}$GeTe${}_2$

Abstract

We present a comprehensive study on anisotropic magnetocaloric porperties of the van der Waals weak-itinerant ferromagnet Fe${}_{3-x}$GeTe${}_2$ that features gate-tunable room-temperature ferromagnetism in few-layer device. Intrinsic magnetocrystalline anisotropy is observed to be temperature-dependent and most likely favors the long-range magnetic order in thin Fe${}_{3-x}$GeTe${}_2$ crsytal. The magnetic entropy change $-\Delta S_M$ also reveals an anisotropic characteristic between $H//ab$ and $H//c$, which could be well scaled into a universal curve. The peak value $-\Delta S_M^{max}$ of 1.20 J kg${}^{-1}$ K${}^{-1}$ and the corresponding adiabatic temperature change $\Delta T_{ad}$ of 0.66 K are deduced from heat capacity with out-of-plane field change of 5 T. By fitting of the field-dependent parameters of $-\Delta S_M^{max}$ and the relative cooling power RCP, it gives $-\Delta S_M^{max}\propto H^n$ with $n=0.603(6)$ and $RCP\propto H^m$ with $m=1.20(1)$ when $H//c$. Given the high and tunable $T_c$, Fe${}_{3-x}$GeTe${}_2$ crystals are of interest for fabricating the heterostructure-based spintronics device.