Magnetic and magnetocaloric properties in Gd1−yPryNi2 compounds

Highlights: • The variety of magnetic arrangements present on Gd_(1−y)Pr_yNi₂ series were investigated experimentally and theoretically. • There is a good agreement between theoretical results and experimental data. • Gd_(1−y)Pr_yNi₂ series is a good candidate to work as an magnetic refrigerant. In this work, we report the magnetic and magnetocaloric properties of the Gd_1−yPr_yNi₂ compounds from both experimental and theoretical points of view. It is worth noting that this series shows a variety of magnetic arrangements depending on the Pr concentration, including paramagnetism, ferrimagnetism and ferromagnetism. Our experimental work consists of the systematic analysis of the magnetic properties of the compounds with y = 0.0, 0.25, 0.5, 0.75 and 1.0, which includes temperature and magnetic field dependence of the magnetization, heat capacity and isothermal entropy change obtained by isothermal magnetization curves. Also, we developed a model Hamiltonian, which takes into account the exchange interactions among Gd-Gd, Gd-Pr and Pr-Pr ions, the Zeeman interaction for both ions and the crystalline electrical field interaction for the Pr ions. We systematically investigated the magnetic properties of the series and obtained a good agreement when compared with our experimental data.