Observation reveals universal magnetocaloric effect near phase transition in quantum magnets, suggesting potential for advanced cooling techniques.
Bose-Einstein condensation (BEC), a macroscopic quantum phenomenon arising from phase coherence and bosonic statistics, has been realized in quantum magnets. Here, we report the observation of a universal magnetocaloric effect (MCE) near a BEC quantum critical point (QCP) in copper sulfate crystal (CuSO₄ · 5H₂O). By conducting magnetocaloric and nuclear magnetic resonance measurements, we uncover a field-driven BEC QCP, evidenced by the universal scaling law Tc ∝ (Bc - B)2/3 and the perfect data collapse of the magnetic Grüneisen ratio. Thermal excitation triggers a dimensional crossover to a 1D quantum-critical regime, where the MCE scaling strictly matches the universality class of 1D Fermi gases. Notably, the quantum-critical MCE enables cooling down to 12.8 mK without helium-3, with very fast thermal relaxation rate that is critical for high cooling power. This work demonstrates the universal MCE in magnon BEC systems, using a common copper sulfate compound as a paradigmatic example, and paves the way for next-generation sub-Kelvin cooling.
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Xiang et al. (2025) studied this question.
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