Observation of large refrigerant capacity in the HoVO3 vanadate single crystal

The HoVO3 orthovanadate undergoes a large negative and conventional magnetocaloric effects around 4K and 15 K, respectively. The partly overlapping of the magnetic transition at 15K and the structural transition occurring at 40 K, as well as the large magnetization, give rise to a giant refrigerant capacity without hysteresis loss. For a magnetic field variation of 7 T, the refrigerant capacity is evaluated to be 620 J/kg, which is larger than that for any known RMnO3 manganite. These results should inspire and open new ways for the improvement of magnetocaloric properties of ABO(3) type-oxides. (C) 2015 AIP Publishing LLC