Low-field induced large magnetocaloric effect in Tm₂Ni_0.93Si_2.93: influence of short-range magnetic correlation

In this work, we report the successful synthesis of a new intermetallic compound Tm₂ [Formula: see text] [Formula: see text] that forms in single phase only in defect crystal structure. The compound does not show any long range magnetic ordering down to 2 K. The material exhibits a large magnetic entropy change ([Formula: see text] J [Formula: see text] K^-1) and adiabatic temperature change ([Formula: see text] K) at 2.2 K for a field change of 20 kOe which can be realized by permanent magnets, thus being very beneficial for application purpose. In the absence of long-range magnetic ordering down to 2 K, the metastable nature of low-temperature spin dynamics and short-range magnetic correlations are considered to be responsible for such a large magnetocaloric effect over a wide temperature region.