Giant magnetocaloric effect driven by indirect exchange in magnetic multilayers

TL;DR

This paper demonstrates a magnetic multilayer with thermally and field-controlled RKKY exchange that enables on/off switching of magnetization, resulting in a giant magnetocaloric effect surpassing rare-earth materials for refrigeration.

Contribution

It introduces a novel multilayer material with controllable RKKY coupling that achieves significant magnetization switching and a large magnetocaloric effect.

Findings

Achieved reproducible on/off magnetization switching within low magnetic fields.

Observed an isothermal entropy change of -10 mJ/K cm^3 under ~10 mT.

Surpassed performance of traditional rare-earth magnetocaloric materials.

Abstract

Indirect exchange coupling in magnetic multilayers, also known as the Ruderman-Kittel-Kasuya-Yosida (RKKY) interaction, is known to be highly effective in controlling the interlayer alignment of the magnetization. This coupling is typically fixed at the stage of the multilayer fabrication and does not allow ex-situ control needed for device applications. It is highly desirable, in addition to the orientational control, to also control the magnitude of the intralayer magnetization, ideally switch it on/off by switching the relevant RKKY coupling. Here we demonstrate a magnetic multilayer material, incorporating thermally -- as well as field-controlled RKKY exchange, focused on to a dilute ferromagnetic alloy layer and driving it though it's Curie transition. Such on/off magnetization switching of a thin ferromagnet, performed repeatably and fully reproducibly within a low-field sweep, results in a giant magnetocaloric effect, with the estimated isothermal entropy change of -10 mJ/K cm^3 under an external field of ~10 mT, which greatly exceeds the performance of the best rare-earth based materials used in the adiabatic-demagnetization refrigeration systems.