Scaling analysis of the magnetocaloric effect in Gd5Si2Ge1.9X0.1 (X=Al, Cu, Ga, Mn, Fe, Co)

The field dependence of the magnetic entropy change has been studied for a series of doped Gd5Si2Ge2 alloys, which possess a magnetic phase transition that is either entirely second order or a combination of primarily second-order mixed to a very minor degree with a first-order transition arising from a magneto-structural phase change. By analyzing the field scaling of the refrigerant capacity as well as of the reference temperatures used for constructing a universal scaling curve, a procedure for estimating the values of the critical exponents for the alloys was developed. For the cases where the transition is entirely second order, the results obtained from this procedure are comparable to the values obtained from the Kouvel-Fisher method. For the case of Fe-doped alloys which partially possess a first-order phase change, the Kouvel-Fisher method is in applicable. However, their critical exponents determined by our developed procedure can be used to estimate the Curie temperature of the orthorhombic majority phase. (C) 2009 Elsevier B. V. All rights reserved.