Suppression of magnetostructural transition on GdSiGe thin film after thermal cyclings

The influence of thermal cycling on the microstructure, magnetic phase transition and magnetic entropy change of a Gd5Si1.3Ge2.7 thin film up to 1000 cycles is investigated. The authors found that after 1000 cycles a strong reduction of the crystallographic phase responsible for the magnetostructural transition (Orthorhombic II phase) occurs. This is attributed to chemical disorder, caused by the large number of expansion/compression cycles that the Orthorhombic II phase undergoes across the magnetostructural transition. The suppression of the magnetostructural transition corresponds to a drastic decrease of the thin film magnetic entropy change. These results reveal the importance of studying the thermal/magnetic cycles influence on magnetostructural transitions as they can damage a real-life device.