Pressure enhancement of the giant magnetocaloric effect in LaFe11.6Si1.4

The authors have studied the effects of pressure on the magnetocaloric effect in a polycrystalline LaFe11.6Si1.4 sample. The Curie temperature TC of the sample rapidly decreases from 191K at ambient pressure to 80K under 8.3kbar pressure. The metamagnetic transition induced by field at temperatures above TC becomes extremely sharp under high pressure and the critical field Hc of the transition increases fast with increasing temperature. As a result, the giant magnetocaloric effect in LaFe11.6Si1.4 is greatly enhanced by pressure, especially at low magnetic fields. For a field variation of 1T only, the maximum value of the entropy change is as high as 34J∕kgK.