Giant magnetocaloric effect in Tb5Ge2–xSi2–xMn2x compounds

The crystal structure, magnetic and magnetocaloric characteristics of the pseduo ternary compounds of Tb5Ge2–xSi2–xMn2x (0 ≤ 2x ≤ 0.1) were investigated by x-ray powder diffraction and magnetization measurements. The x-ray powder diffraction results show that all compounds preserve the monoclinic phase as the majority phase and all the synthesized compounds were observed to be ferromagnetic from magnetization measurements. Magnetic phase transitions were interpreted in terms of Landau theory. Maximum isothermal magnetic entropy change value (20.84 J · kg−1 · K−1) was found for Tb5Ge1.95Si1.95Mn0.1 at around 123 K in the magnetic field change of 5 T. (condensed matter: electronic structure, electrical, magnetic, and optical properties)