A study on spin memory, nature of magnetic transition, and magnetocaloric effect in Nd0.5Ca0.5MnO3

Current work focuses on the magnetization and magnetocaloric properties of Nd0.5Ca0.5MnO3 (NCMO) prepared by the solid-state reaction method. Belov-Arrott plots indicate a glimpse of first-order magnetic transition. Besides the metamagnetic transition at lower temperatures, NCMO exhibits interesting spin memory property at 4 K. Magnetic entropy change (Delta S) during magnetization attains a peak value of vertical bar Delta S-max vertical bar = 15.02 JKg(-1)K(-1) at 20 K for a 14 T magnetic field. But for demagnetization under the same conditions vertical bar Delta S-max vertical bar value reduces to 7.20 JKg(-1)K(-1) at 35 K. Demagnetization entropy change is almost constant in the working temperature span compared to magnetization entropy change. The normalized value of Delta S for both magnetization and demagnetization deviates from the universal behavior, which confirms the first-order magnetic transition.