The normal and inverse magnetocaloric effect in RCu2 (R=Tb, Dy, Ho, Er) compounds

Abstract Orthorhombic polycrystalline RCu 2 (R=Tb, Dy, Ho and Er) compounds were synthesized and the magnetic properties and magnetocaloric effect (MCE) were investigated in detail. All of the RCu 2 compounds are antiferromagnetic (AFM) ordered. As temperature increases, RCu 2 compounds undergo an AFM to AFM transition at T t and an AFM to paramagnetic (PM) transition at T N . Besides of the normal MCE around T N , large inverse MCE around T t was found in TbCu 2 compound. Under a field change of 0–7 T, the maximal value of inverse MCE is even larger than the value of normal MCE around T N for TbCu 2 compound. Considering of the normal and inverse MCE, TbCu 2 shows the largest refrigerant capacity among the RCu 2 (R=Tb, Dy, Ho and Er) compounds indicating its potential applications in low temperature multistage refrigeration.