Critical behavior and magnetocaloric effect in La0.67Ca0.33Mn1−xCrxO3 (x = 0.1, 0.25)

Universal behavior of the magnetocaloric effect along with structural and critical exponent analysis in mixed manganite La0.67Ca0.33Mn1-xCrxO3 (x = 0.1, 0.25), [LCMCr0.1 and LCMCr0.25] exhibiting second order phase transition are investigated. Structural study using Reitveld refinement of XRD patterns indicates orthorhombic structure with Pnma space group. Modified Arrott plot method has been adopted to study the critical behavior of the compounds at their transition region, which gives values of beta = 0.555(6), gamma = 1.17(4) and delta = 2.7096(7) at T-C = 232.5 K for LCMCr0.1 and beta = 0.68 (1), gamma = 1.09(3) and delta = 2.9362(4) at T-C = 202.5 K for LCMCr0.25. The values are close to those expected for mean field ferromagnets with long range order. With increase in Cr content, the temperature corresponding to the maximum entropy change as well as the magnetic transition temperature gradually shifts to low temperatures. The maximum magnetic entropy change was found to be 3.5 J/kg K for x = 0.1 and 2.2 J/kg K for x = 0.25 for a field change of 5 T. The field dependence of the magnetic entropy change is also analyzed, which shows the power law dependence namely, Delta S-M alpha H-n, n = 0.9086(5) at T-C = 232.5 K and n = 0.849(7) at T-C = 202.5 K for LCMCr0.1 and LCMCr0.25 respectively. Relative cooling power was found to be about 147 J/kg for LCMCr0.1 and 88 J/kg for LCMCr0.25. The field dependence of the relative cooling power for both the compounds shows a H1+1/delta dependence with the delta values in agreement with the mean field model. (C) 2011 Elsevier Masson SAS. All rights reserved.