Magnetocaloric effect in Gd-based Gd60FexCo30−xAl10 metallic glasses

Magnetocaloric effect and refrigerant capacity of Gd-based Gd60FexCo30−xAl10 metallic glasses are investigated for x = 0, 10 , 20 and 30. It is found that the non-linearity of saturation magnetization in crystalline Co–Fe binary alloys can be transferred to the quaternary metallic glass. Whereas the magnetocaloric specific values of Gd60Co30Al10 are comparable in magnitude with those of other Gd-based metallic glasses, Fe addition leads to an increase of the saturation magnetization and refrigerator capacity with a maximum for x   = 20. Simultaneously, the temperature of maximum isothermal change of magnetic entropy TΔSmaxTΔSmax increases from 145 to 200 K with increasing Fe-content and also the halfwidth ΔTSmax/2ΔTSmax/2 of the ΔS–ΔS–T-curve is considerably broadened. Furthermore, the effect of thermal treatment slightly above the first crystallization event on the magnetocaloric effect are investigated, showing a lowering of the working temperature in the first place.