Critical behavior and tunable magnetocaloric effect in (Gd1-xErx)3Al2 alloys

The magnetic properties, magnetocaloric effect, and the critical behavior near Curie temperature (TC) were systematically studied in a series of (Gd1-xErx)3Al2 (x = 0, 0.1, 0.2, 0.3) alloys. As the Er content increases, both the TC and lattice constant gradually decrease. The maximum magnetic entropy change and refrigerant capacity remain relatively high, ranging from -5.8 to -8.5J/kg K and 209.0 to 290.8 J/kg respectively, for a field change of 5 T. The critical exponents, derived from the field dependence of magnetic entropy change, conform to scaling theory and are consistent with those obtained using the Kouvel-Fisher method. These findings suggest that the reliability of the obtained critical exponents and imply the presence of long-range exchange interactions in (Gd1-xErx)3Al2 alloys.