Abstract
We present study of the anisotropic magnetocaloric effect in TbNiAl crystallizing in the hexagonal ZrNiAl-type structure. TbNiAl orders antiferromagnetically below T(N) = 47K and undergoes second magnetic phase transition to another antiferromagnetic structure at T(1) = 23K.
Magnetization and specific heat measurements on single crystal revealed strongly anisotropic magnetocaloric effect. The large effect occurs for field applied along the hexagonal c-axis whereas the entropy change is almost zero for the perpendicular field direction.
Plateau-like character of the determined temperature change is observed between T(N) and T(1). (C) 2011 Elsevier B.V. All rights reserved.