The influence of thermal cycling on the microstructure, magnetic phase transition and magnetic entropy change of a Gd5Si1.3Ge2.7 thin film up to 1000 cycles is investigated. The authors found that after 1000 cycles a strong reduction of the crystallographic phase responsible for the magnetostructural transition (Orthorhombic II phase) occurs. This is attributed to chemical disorder, caused by the large number of expansion/compression cycles that the Orthorhombic II phase undergoes across the magnetostructural transition. The suppression of the magnetostructural transition corresponds to a drastic decrease of the thin film magnetic entropy change. These results reveal the importance of studying the thermal/magnetic cycles influence on magnetostructural transitions as they can damage a real-life device.
Available at: http://works.bepress.com/rlhadimani/26/
This is a manuscript of an article published as Pires, A. L., J. H. Belo, I. T. Gomes, R. L. Hadimani, D. L. Schlagel, T. A. Lograsso, D. C. Jiles, A. M. L. Lopes, J. P. Araújo, and A. M. Pereira. "Suppression of magnetostructural transition on GdSiGe thin film after thermal cyclings." Thin Solid Films 621 (2017): 247-252. DOI: 10.1016/j.tsf.2016.09.013. Posted with permission.