High Magnetic Anisotropy and Magnetocaloric Effects in Single-Crystal Cr2Te3

We report a systematic investigation of anisotropic magnetocaloric effects in single-crystal Cr2Te3. Single-crystal samples are synthesized by chemical vapor transport and characterized by X-ray and Laue diffraction methods. The maximum magnetic entropy change -Delta S-M(max) is 4.50 J kg(-1) K-1 for the easy c-axis (3.36 J kg(-1) K-1 for the hard axis along ab-plane), and the relative cooling power (RCP) is 296.7 J kg(-1) for the easy c-axis (183.84 J kg(-1) for the hard axis along ab-plane) for a magnetic field change of 9 T near the Curie temperature. The magneto-crystalline anisotropy constant K-u is estimated to be 580.12 kJ m(-3) at 140 K, decreasing to 148.60 kJ m(-3) at 168 K. Meanwhile, the maximum of the rotational magnetic entropy change -Delta S-M (R)(T, H) between the c-axis and the ab-plane is about 1.14 J kg(-1) K-1 for magnetic-field change of 9 T. The critical exponents are estimated by analyzing magnetocaloric effects, which indicate a 2D-Ising type magnetic system. The accuracy of estimated critical exponents is verified by scaling analysis. The maximum magnetic entropy change -Delta S-M(max) approximate to 5.25 J kg(-1) K-1 (along the c-axis) and the corresponding adiabatic temperature change Delta T-ad approximate to 3.31 K (along the c-axis) are estimated by analyzing heat capacity measurements with a magnetic field up to 9 T.