Magnetocaloric effect in single-crystalline Nd<inf>1-x</inf>Sr<inf>x</inf>MnO<inf>3</inf> (x=0.3, 0.5)

An investigation of the magnetocaloric effect (MCE) of single-crystalline Nd1-xSrxMnO3 (x=0.3, 0.5) is presented. A large change in magnetic entropy (ΔS) is observed in anti-ferromagnet (AFM) charge-ordering compound Nd0.5Sr0.5MnO3 in a relatively low field of 1.4 T around the Néel temperature of 150 K. On the other hand, Nd0.7Sr0.3MnO3, which is a ferromagnetic (FM) metal, shows an entropy change of 3.82 J/kg K and a broad temperature dependence of adiabatic temperature change (ΔTad) over 20 K in the same low-field range around the Curie temperature (TC=203 K). Mechanism involved in the large MCE in these compounds is discussed. © 2006 Elsevier B.V. All rights reserved.