Large magnetocaloric effect and near-zero thermal hysteresis in the rare earth intermetallic Tb_1-xDy_xCo₂ compounds

We report the magnetocaloric effect in a Tb_1-xDy_xCo₂ compound which exhibits a wide working temperature window around the Curie temperature (T _C) and delivers a large refrigerant capacity (RC) with near-zero thermal hysteresis. Specifically, the wide full width at half maxima () can reach up to 62 K and the RC value changes from 216.5 to 274.3 J Kg^-1 when the external magnetic field increases to 5 T. Such magnetocaloric effects are attributed to a magnetic and structural transition from a paramagnetic and cubic phase to a ferromagnetic (M _S along [1 1 1] direction) and rhombohedral phase or ferromagnetic (M _S along [0 0 1] direction) and tetragonal phase.