Irreversible heat flow across phase boundaries in phase-separated manganites

Abstract We have investigated the change in entropy with direct measurements of heat flow as a function of magnetic field at fixed temperatures across the entire phase diagram of the phase-separated (PS) compound La0.25Pr0.375Ca0.375MnO3 (LPCMO). At this composition, the compound shows competing charge-ordered/antiferromagnetic (CO/AF) ground states. Under a fixed temperature, we observed an increase in hysteresis in the entropy as a function of the applied field. The heat flux shows progressively irreversible hysteresis, which characterizes the energy barriers between the two competing ground states, as the temperature is lowered. The increase in the heat loss correlates with the increase in magnetic viscosity in the phase-separated state.