Glass-Forming Ability and Magnetocaloric Effect in Gd55Co20Al25-xSix Bulk Metallic Glass

In this letter, we investigated the effect of Si addition on glass forming ability and magnetocaloric effect in Gd-Co-Al bulk glassy alloys. It is found that the addition of only 1 at.% or 2 at.% Si is effective for extension of the supercooled liquid region (Delta T-x) and decrease of the fragility parameter m. As a result, Gd-based glassy alloys with diameters up to 5 mm were successfully synthesized. The alloys also exhibit large MCE, i.e., having the magnetic entropy change (-Delta S-m) of 9.2 J kg(-1) K-1, the full width at half maximum of the -Delta S-m (delta T-FWHM) of 87 K, and the refrigerant capacity (RC) of 800 J kg(-1).