Pulsed high-magnetic-field experiments: New insights into the magnetocaloric effect in Ni-Mn-In Heusler alloys

The present pulsed high-magnetic-field study on Ni₅₀Mn₃₅In₁₅ gives an extra insight into the thermodynamics of the martensitic transformation in Heusler shape-memory alloys. The transformation-entropy change, ΔS, was estimated from field-dependent magnetization experiments in pulsed high magnetic fields and by heat-capacity measurements in static fields. We found a decrease of ΔS with decreasing temperature. This behavior can be understood by considering the different signs of the lattice and magnetic contributions to the total entropy. Our results further imply that the magnetocaloric effect will decrease with decreasing temperature and, furthermore, the martensitic transition is not induced anymore by changing the temperature in high magnetic fields.