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In recent years, MnFePGe magnetocaloric materials have been widely studied as promising candidates for magnetic refrigeration materials. The Curie temperatures of MnFePGe can be adjusted to around room temperature by changing the element ratio or doping with other elements. Due to its first order magnetic and structural transition, it engenders a large entropy change, but unfortunately also can exhibit a large thermal hysteresis during the phase transition which leads to energy loss and lower refrigeration capability. In this paper, we establish a correlation between the in-plane covalent bonding and Curie temperature (TC), thermal hysteresis (ΔThys), two-phase coexistence zone (ΔTcoex), and entropy change (ΔSDSC) using 54 Mn2-xFexPyGe1-yMz (M is a metallic or nonmetallic doped element) samples with different components. Neutron diffraction and XRD diffraction data and refinements have been employed to allow detailed electron density calculations of 6 typical samples. We find that the length of the in-plane bonding is correlated with TC and ΔThys, while TC, ΔThys, ΔTcoex and ΔSDSC have no significant correlation with the length of the interlayer covalent bond. Moreover, we find that ΔThys correlates most strongly with the change in the bond length when undergoing the paramagnetic to ferromagnetic phase transition, rather than the absolute value of the bond length. These results provide an understanding of what parameters control the properties, enabling an effective way to tune the composition of magnetic refrigeration materials to tailor magnetocaloric properties for optimal performance.
Zhang, H.
, Liu, D.
, Zhang, Z.
, Wang, S.
, Yue, M.
, Huang, Q.
and Lynn, J.
(2021),
The Correlation between the Covalent Bonds and Magnetocaloric Properties of the Mn<sub>2-x</sub>Fe<sub>x</sub>P<sub>y</sub>Ge<sub>1-y</sub>M<sub>z</sub> Compounds, Journal of Applied Physics
(Accessed October 9, 2025)