Dynamic tuning by hydrostatic pressure of magnetocaloric properties to Ericsson like cycles

Highlights: • The use of combined hydrostatic pressure and magnetic field in magnetic refrigeration devices could leave in an increase of the relative cooling power. • This idea is used to obtain a "table-like" behavior in the temperature dependence of the entropy. • We introduced a barocaloric cooling power to quantify the effect and we analyzed the effect of hydrostatic pressure in other systems reported in literature. • The presented approach can be used in the design of magnetic refrigeration devices. A method to increase the relative cooling power to be used in Ericsson like refrigeration cycles is presented. The technique is based in the modification of the magnetic properties by the application of hydrostatic pressure on magnetic samples. The main advantage is to reach larger values of the magnetic entropy change in a wider temperature region (the so-called "table like" behavior). The study was carried out in a manganite belonging to the family of La_0.625−yNd_yCa_0.375MnO₃, and some conclusions were compared with the expected behavior in other materials extracted from literature.