Reversibility of minor hysteresis loops in magnetocaloric Heusler alloys

The unavoidable existence of thermal hysteresis in these magnetocaloric materials is one of the central challenges limiting their implementation in cooling devices. Transforming the material in minor loops of the thermal hysteresis, however, allows achieving significant reversible effects even when the hysteresis is relatively large. In this work, we focus on the magnetocaloric properties of Heusler alloys under cycling. We compare thermometric measurements of the adiabatic temperature change in low magnetic fields and pulsed field experiments with calorimetric measurements of the isothermal entropy change when moving in minor hysteresis loops driven by magnetic fields [1, 2].