Large anisotropic magnetocaloric effect in Weyl-semimetal candidate NdGaSi single crystal

Magnetic Weyl semimetals have attracted much attention due to their special band structure and peculiar physical properties. Here, the magnetic and magnetocaloric effects of the magnetic Weyl semimetal candidate NdGaSi single crystal are investigated. NdGaSi crystallizes in the LaPtSi-type noncentrosymmetric tetragonal structure with space group I41md. Two successive magnetic phase transitions are observed through specific heat, thermomagnetic, and longitudinal resistivity measurements, which should be related to an incommensurate spin density wave and a commensurate ferromagnetic state. NdGaSi exhibits high magnetic anisotropy with the easy magnetization direction in the c axis, suggestive of an Ising-like magnetism and good performance in rotating magnetocaloric effects. With the magnetic field change of 0-5 T, the maximum magnetic entropy changes obtained along c axis and ab plane are -21.5 and -2.4 J kg-1 K- 1, respectively. The rotating magnetic entropy change reaches -20.6 J kg- 1 K- 1 under 5 T by the rotation of magnetic field from the ab plane to c axis. These results indicate that NdGaSi is an excellent rotating magnetocaloric material at low temperature region.