Competing magnetic interactions and magnetocaloric effect in Ho${}_5$Sn${}_3$

Abstract

The rare-earth intermetallic compound Ho${}_5$Sn${}_3$ demonstrates fascinating magnetic properties which include temperature-driven multiple magnetic transitions and field driven metamagnetism. We address the magnetic character of this exciting compound through a combined experimental and theoretical studies. Ho${}_5$Sn${}_3$ orders antiferromagnetically below $28$ K, and shows further spin reorientation transitions at 15 K and 12 K. We observe a sizable amount of low-temperature magnetocaloric effect in Ho${}_5$Sn${}_3$ with a maximum value of entropy change $\Delta S$ = -9.5 JKg${}^{-1}$K${}^{-1}$ for an applied field of $H$ = 50 kOe at around 30 K. The field hysteresis is almost zero above 15 K where magneto-caloric effect is important. Interestingly, $\Delta S$ is found to change its sign from positive to negative as the temperature is increased above about 8 K, which can be linked to the multiple spin reorientation transitions. The signature of the metamagnetism is visible in the $\Delta S$ versus $H$ plot. The magnetic ground-state, obtained from the density functional theory based calculation, is susceptible to the effective Coulomb interaction ($U_{\mathrm{eff}}$) between electrons. Depending upon the value of $U_{\mathrm{eff}}$, the ground-state can be ferromagnetic or antiferromagnetic. The compound shows large relaxation (14\% change in magnetization in 60 min) in the field cooled state with a logarithmic time variation, which may be connected to the competing magnetic ground-states observed in our theoretical calculations. The competing magnetic ground-states is also evident from the small value of the paramagnetic Curie-Weiss temperature.

arXiv comment10 pages, 6 figures

References in corpus (11)

• Spin-flop transition in uniaxial antiferromagnets: magnetic phases, reorientation effects, multidomain states
• High throughput computational screening for 2D ferromagnetic materials: the critical role of anisotropy and local correlations
• Pinning of Domain Walls in thin Ferromagnetic Films
• Spin-glass-like state in GdCu: role of phase separation and magnetic frustration
• Aging, memory, and nonhierarchical energy landscape of spin jam
• Strong frustration due to competing ferromagnetic and antiferromagnetic interactions: magnetic properties of M(VO)2(PO4)2 (M = Ca and Sr)
• Sharp fall of electrical resistance for a small application of magnetic field on a metastable form of a compound, Tb5Si3, under pressure
• Magnetic phase separation and strong AFM nature of hexagonal Gd${}_5$Sb${}_3$
• Strong magnetic coupling in the hexagonal R5Pb3 compounds (R = Gd-Tm)
• Development of half metallicity within mixed magnetic phase of Cu${}_{1-x}$Co${}_x$MnSb alloy
• K${}_2$CoS${}_2$: A new two-dimensional in-plane antiferromagnetic insulator