Observation of large refrigerant capacity in the HoVO3 vanadate single crystal

The HoVO3 orthovanadate undergoes a large negative and conventional magnetocaloric effects around 4 K and 15 K, respectively. The partly overlapping of the magnetic transition at 15 K and the structural transition occurring at 40 K, as well as the large magnetization, give rise to a giant refrigerant capacity without hysteresis loss. For a magnetic field variation of 7 T, the refrigerant capacity is evaluated to be 620 J/kg, which is larger than that for any known RMnO3 manganite. These results should inspire and open new ways for the improvement of magnetocaloric properties of ABO3 type-oxides.