We report on the observation of temperature and field dependent anomalous Nernst effect (ANE) in Ni-rich bulk Ni-Co-Mn-Sn full Heusler alloy. A large change in the transverse Nernst coefficient (N) is obtained across the first order magnetostructural transition from a tetragonal martensite to a cubic austenite phase. The saturation of ANE and magnetic data appear to depend largely on the magnetic anisotropy of the device. Such change in the Nernst co-efficient may prove to be useful for switching applications controlled by temperature and magnetic field changes.
Magneto-structural instability in the ferromagnetic shape memory alloy of composition Ni$_2$Mn$_{1.4}$Sn$_{0.6}$ is investigated by transport and magnetic measurements. Large negative magnetoresistance is observed around the martensitic transition te
mperature (90-210 K). Both magnetization and magnetoresistance data indicate that upon the application of an external magnetic field at a constant temperature, the sample attains a field-induced arrested state which persists even when the field is withdrawn. We observe an intriguing behavior of the arrested state that it can remember the last highest field it has experienced. The field-induced structural transition plays the key role for the observed anomaly and the observed irreversibility can be accounted by the Landau-type free energy model for the first order phase transition.
We report a detailed investigation of the Ni$_{2}$MnGa shape memory alloy through magnetic, electronic, and thermal measurements. Our measurements of the anomalous Nernst effect (ANE) reveal that this technique is very sensitive to the onset of the p
re-martensitic transition in sharp contrast to other transport measurements. With the ANE being sensitive to changes at the Fermi surface, we infer on the link between the structural modulations and the modulation of the Fermi surface via its nesting features, with the magnetic field induced strain being the mediating mechanism.
Magnetic and magneto-functional behavior of a Fe-doped MnNiGe alloy with nominal composition Mn$_{0.85}$Fe$_{0.15}$NiGe have been investigated in ambient as well as in high pressure condition. The alloy undergoes first order martensitic phase transit
ion (MPT) around 200 K and also shows large conventional magnetocaloric effect (MCE) ($Delta S$ $sim$ -21 J/kg-K for magnetic field ($H$) changing from 0-50 kOe) around the transition in ambient condition. Application of external hydrostatic pressure ($P$) results a shift in MPT towards the lower temperature and a clear decrease in the saturation moment of the alloy at 5 K. The peak value of MCE is also found to decrease with increasing external $P$ ($sim$ 18 J/kg-K decrease in $Delta S$ has been observed for $P$ = 12.5 kbar). The most interesting observation is the occurance of exchange bias effect (EBE) on application of external $P$. The competing ferromagnetic and antiferromagnetic interaction in presence of external $P$ plays the pivotal role towards the observation of $P$ induced EBE.
We report a systematic study on the magneto-structural transition in Mn-rich Fe-doped Mn-Fe-Ni-Sn(Sb/In) Heusler alloys by keeping the total valence electron concentration (e/a ratio) fixed. The martensitic transition (MT) temperature is found to shi
ft by following a proportional relationship with the e/a ratio of the magnetic elements alone. The magnetic entropy change across MT for a selected sample (Mn49FeNi40Sn9In) has been estimated from three different measurement methods (isofield magnetization (M) vs temperature (T), isothermal M vs field (H) and heat capacity (HC) vs T). We observed that though the peak value of magnetic entropy change changes with the measurement methods, the broadened shape of the magnetic entropy change vs T curves and the corresponding cooling power (~140 Jkg-1) remains invariant. The equivalent adiabatic temperature change ~ -2.6 K has been obtained from indirect measurements of temperature change. Moreover, an exchange bias field ~ 783 Oe at 5 K and a magnetoresistance of -30% are also obtained in one of these materials.
A giant magnetocaloric effect across the ferromagnetic (FM) to paramagnetic (PM) phase transition was observed in chemically synthesized Co2FeAl Heusler alloy nanoparticles with a mean diameter of 16 nm. In our previous report, we have observed a sig
nificant enhancement in its saturation magnetization (Ms) and Curie temperature (Tc) as compared with the bulk counterpart. Motivated from those results, here, we aim to explore its magnetocaloric properties near the Tc. The magnetic entropy change shows a positive anomaly at 1252 K. Magnetic entropy change increases linearly with the magnetic field, and a large value of ~15 J/Kg-K is detected under a moderate field of 14 kOe. It leads to a net relative cooling power of 89 J/Kg for the magnetic field change of 14 kOe. To confirm the nature of magnetic phase transition, a detailed study of its magnetization is performed. The Arrott plot and nature of the universal curve conclude that FM to PM phase transition in the present system is of second-order.