Large magnetic entropy change in Cu-doped manganites

Magnetic entropy change above 300 K, which is larger than that of gadolinium (Phys. Rev. B 57 (1998) 3478), has been observed in a Cu-doped manganites of La0.7Sr0.3Mn1−xCuxO3 (x=0.05,0.1). The large magnetic entropy change originated from a sharp magnetization jump is associated with a first-order crystallographic phase transition of the sample near the Curie temperature. These results suggest that the present Cu-doped manganites are suitable candidate materials for magnetic refrigerants in the room temperature magnetic-refrigeration technology.