Magnetocaloric effect in multilayers studied by membrane-based calorimetry

Abstract

Abstract We study magnetic multilayers, incorporating dilute ferromagnetic spacers between strongly-ferromagnetic layers exhibiting a proximity-enhanced magnetocaloric effect (MCE). Using magnetometry and direct measurements of the adiabatic temperature change based on a nanomembrane-calorimetry, we find that the MCE in the studied multilayer is indeed enhanced compared to that in the bulk spacer material. We develop a phenomenological numerical model of the studied trilayer and find that a long-range exchange interaction through the weakly-ferromagnetic spacer is required to adequately describe the magnetic and magnetocaloric properties of the system.