Structural, magnetic, transport and magnetocaloric properties of metamagnetic DyMn <inf>0.5</inf>Co <inf>0.5</inf>O <inf>3</inf>

Rietveld refinement of the powder diffraction data revealed that DyMn 0.5Co 0.5O 3 (DMCO) crystallized in an orthorhombic structure containing distorted Mn/Co-O 6 octahedra (sp.gr Pnma; a 5.5922(1) Å, b 7.4987(1) Å, c 5.2606(1) Å). Below 85 K, the field cooled magnetization data shows a spontaneous magnetic ordering. The metamagnetic behavior of the sample is evident from the nature of variation of magnetization with applied magnetic field. The field dependent magnetization at 5 K, points out the Mn and Co ions are aligned ferromagnetically, whereas Dy and Mn-Co sublattices are coupled antiferromagnetically. The magnitude of isothermal magnetic entropy change, S Mmax is ∼ 9.30 J kg -1 K -1 in the vicinity of magnetic ordering of Dy 3+for the field change of 7 T, is appreciable to consider DyMn 0.5Co 0.5O 3 as a magnetic refrigerant at low temperatures. The temperature variation of electrical resistivity shows the highly insulating nature of the sample. © 2012 American Institute of Physics.