Structural and magnetic study of the MnAs magnetocaloric compound

Abstract

The temperature induced phase transition in MnAs is analyzed in this work using X ray Rietveld refinement. The results show the presence of the hexagonal phase (P6(3)/mmc) at room temperature and the first-order structural-magnetic transition to the orthorhombic phase (Pnma) around 318 K was followed in detail. The MnAs magnetic characterization allowed to obtain the transition temperature and a maximum value of 47 J/(kg.K) for the measured magnetocaloric effect for a magnetic field variation of 5 T.

Keywords

• MnAs intermetallic compound
• magnetocaloric effect
• structural phase transition