Giant magnetocaloric effect near the curie temperature in the Sm0.6Sr0.4MnO3 manganite

A method is proposed for the calculation of the magnetocaloric effect from simultaneous measurements of thermal expansion and magnetostriction made in different regimes (adiabatic and isothermal). The magnitude of the magnetocaloric effect for Sm0.6Sr0.4MnO3 is estimated. It is found that near the Curie temperature TC it passes through a maximum to reach a giant value ΔT=4.6 K for ΔB=0.84 T. In addition, in the neighborhood of TC, we observed colossal magnetoresistance Δρ/ρ = [ρ(H) − ρ(0)]/ρ(0) = 72% in a weak magnetic field of 0.84 T, a giant negative volume magnetostriction ω=−5×10−4 in a field of the same strength, and a large change in the sample volume ΔV/V ≈ 0.1%.