Magnetic properties and giant cryogenic magnetocaloric effect in B-site ordered antiferromagnetic Gd2MgTiO6 double perovskite oxide

The magnetic refrigeration (MR) technology by utilizing the magnetocaloric (MC) effects of magnetic solids have been realized to be a promising energy efficiency and environmentally friendly technology. Developing or discovering proper magnetic solids with promising MC performances is one of the most important tasks at present stage since a huge gap still exists between the requirement of practical MR application and the MC performances of the magnetic solids. Herein, we reported a combined theoretical and experimental investigation of the crystal structure together with the magnetic properties, magnetic phase transition (MPT) and MC performances in Gd2MgTiO6 oxide. The Gd2MgTiO6 is confirmed to crystalize in a B-site ordered monoclinic double perovskite (DP) crystal structure. A rather unstable antiferromagnetic (AFM) interaction with large magnetic moment and semi-conductor characteristic with the band gap of 2.977 eV have been confirmed in Gd2TiMgO6 DP oxide at ground state. Giant reversible cryogenic MC effect together with excellent MC performances have been confirmed by a series of the figure of merits including the values of maximum magnetic entropy change (-ΔSM) and refrigerant capacity (RC), which are evaluated to be 46.21 J/kgK and 300.27 J/kg around 3.3 K with the magnetic change of 0–7 T, these values are much better than most of the recently reported famous cryogenic MC materials and the commercialized magnetic refrigerants gadolinium gallium garnet (GGG) as well. The observed excellent MC performances suggest that Gd2TiMgO6 DP oxide is a promising candidate material for cryogenic MR applications.