Magnetic and magnetocaloric properties of equiatomic alloys RAl (RÂ =Â Ho and Er)

Magnetic and magnetocaloric properties of binary equiatomic alloys RAl (R = Ho and Er) are investigated in this work. HoAl compound undergoes antiferromagnetic (AFM)-ferromagnetic (FM) transition at T1 = 13 K, and FM-paramagnetic (PM) transition at the Curie temperature TC = 20 K, with temperature increasing. ErAl compound exhibits AFM-PM transition at the Néel temperature TN = 9 K. The maximal values of magnetic entropy change (ΔSM) are −22.5 J kg−1 K−1 for HoAl and −16.4 J kg−1 K−1 for ErAl for a magnetic field change of 0-5 T. The values of refrigerant capacity (RC) are 379.5 J kg−1 and 259.7 J kg−1 for HoAl and ErAl respectively. The large magnetocaloric effect makes RAl (R = Ho and Er) compounds promising candidates for low-temperature magnetic refrigerants.