Magnetocaloric effect and nature of magnetic transition in low dimensional DyCu2

• A novel method is used to prepare small flakes of DyCu2.
• Metamagnetic transitions are observed in M vs. H.
• MCE on flakes of DyCu2 is found to be −4.31 J/kg-K.
• Ferromagnetic fraction is estimated as 10%.
• Nonlinearity in M2 vs. H/M behavior is ascribed to the random anisotropy or a random field that is present in the system.

In this manuscript, we propose a method to prepare small flakes of DyCu2. On top of that we also report on the magnetocaloric effect and nature of magnetic transition of a strongly anisotropic DyCu2 in its low dimension. Magnetization measurements were carried out in the temperature range of 5–100 K and up to the maximum magnetic field strength of 50 kOe. Magnetic entropy change (ΔSM) is estimated using the well-known Maxwell’s equations and is found to be −4.31 J/kg-K. Indeed, the ΔSM peak broadened marginally compared with its bulk DyCu2 and such a broadening can be attributed to significant increase in the total grain boundary volume. As these small flakes consists larger ΔSM values at temperatures higher than the Nèel temperature (TN), one can use them as a magnetic refrigerant material in a broad temperature range. We also plotted the M2 vs. H/M (which are called as the Arrott plots) in order to find the nature of magnetic transition. Arrott plots infer that indeed there exists nonlinearity in M2 vs. H/M behavior and such nonlinear behavior is ascribed to the random anisotropy or a random field that is present in the system.