Complex magnetic properties and large magnetocaloric effects in RCoGe (R=Tb, Dy) compounds

Complicated magnetic phase transitions and Large magnetocaloric effects (MCEs) in RCoGe (R=Tb, Dy) compounds have been reported in this paper. Results show that the TbCoGe compounds have a magnetic phase transition from antiferromagnetic to paramagnetic (AFM-PM) at T_N∼16 K, which is close to the value reported by neutron diffraction. The DyCoGe compound undergoes complicated phase changes from 2 K up to 300 K. The peak at 10 K displays a phase transition from antiferromagnetic to ferromagnetic (AFM-FM). In particular, a significant ferromagnetic to paramagnetic (FM-PM) phase transition was found at the temperature as high as 175 K and the cusp becomes more abrupt with the magnetic field increasing from 0.01 T to 0.1 T. The maximum value of magnetic entropy change of TbCoGe and DyCoGe compounds achieve 14.5 J/kg K and 11.5 J/kg K respectively for a field change of 0-5 T. Additionally, the correspondingly considerable refrigerant capacity value of 260 J/kg and 242 J/kg are also obtained respectively, suggesting that both TbCoGe and DyCoGe compounds could be considered as good candidates for low temperature magnetic refrigerant.