Oscillations in magnetocaloric effect and magnetic properties of RE2Al3Si2 (for RE=Dy, Ho and Er) and REAlSi (for RE=Ce and Pr)

We present the magnetic and thermal properties of a series of compounds RE2Al3Si2 for RE=Dy, Ho, Er, and REAlSi for RE=Pr, Ce. The 2–3–2 family crystallizes with themonoclinic Y2Al3Si2-type structure while the 1–1–1 family crystallizes in the body-centered tetragonal α-ThSi2-type structure. The measurements were done on single crystals, grown using high-temperature flux technique and molten Al as a solvent . Susceptibility and heat capacity data were taken from 1.8 to 200 K, from the heat capacity data, the isothermal magnetic entropy change was obtained. Our results indicate signal oscillations in magnetocaloric properties for those compounds, in particular, Dy2Al3Si2 that shows an anomaly that can be associated with a spin reorientation. Similar results are known for some Dy discilicides and dialluminades.