On the magnetocaloric effect in the multiferroic hexagonal DyMnO3 single crystals

The magnetic properties and magnetocaloric performance of the multiferroic hexagonal single crystal DyMnO3 have been explored. A giant anisotropic and reversible magnetocaloric effect (MCE) is observed in the vicinity of the magnetic phase transition from the ferrimagnetic to the antiferromagnetic state at 8 K. This latter was found to be of first-order character. The magnetocaloric effect was enhanced when a magnetic field higher than 1 T is applied along the hard plane, ab. Moreover, a significant level of the entropy change is observed at very low magnetic fields along the easy axis c, resulting from a field-induced metamagnetic transition around 8 K. Our estimate of the cooling capacity of the hexagonal DyMnO3 is comparable or even larger than the best magnetocaloric materials in a similar working temperature range.