A study on spin memory, nature of magnetic transition, and magnetocaloric effect in Nd0.5Ca0.5MnO3

Current work focuses on the magnetization and magnetocaloric properties of Nd_0.5Ca_0.5MnO₃ (NCMO) prepared by the solid-state reaction method. Belov-Arrott plots indicate a glimpse of first-order magnetic transition. Besides the metamagnetic transition at lower temperatures, NCMO exhibits interesting spin memory property at 4 K. Magnetic entropy change (ΔS) during magnetization attains a peak value of $\left({\Delta S}_{\max }\right)$ = 15.02 JKg^-1K⁻¹ at 20 K for a 14 T magnetic field. But for demagnetization under the same conditions $\left({\Delta S}_{\max }\right)$ value reduces to 7.20 JKg⁻¹K⁻¹ at 35 K. Demagnetization entropy change is almost constant in the working temperature span compared to magnetization entropy change. The normalized value of ΔS for both magnetization and demagnetization deviates from the universal behavior, which confirms the first-order magnetic transition.