Magnetic property and magnetocaloric effect in TmCoAl compound

• The value of −ΔSMmax is 10.2 J/kg K under field changes of 2 T.
• TmCoAl compound's MCEs show no thermal and magnetic hysteresis.
• TmCoAl compound shows second-order FM-PM magnetic transition.

A large reversible magnetocaloric effect accompanied by a second order magnetic phase transition from paramagnetic (PM) to ferromagnetic (FM) has been observed in TmCoAl intermetallic compound. For the magnetic field change of 5 T, the maximum value of magnetic entropy change (−ΔSMmax) and the value of refrigerant capacity (RC) are evaluated to be 18.2 J/kg K and 211 J/kg, respectively. In particular, a large −ΔSMmax (10.2 J/kg K) is achieved at 7.5 K under a low magnetic field change from 0 to 2 T with no thermal hysteresis and magnetic hysteresis loss. The large reversible magnetocaloric effect (both the large −ΔSM and the high RC) indicates that TmCoAl is one of a promising material for magnetic refrigeration in low temperature.