Magnetic Interactions and Magnetocaloric Effect in (La0.5Pr0.5)0.6Ba0.4MnO3: Effect of A-Site Codoping

The structural, magnetic, and magnetocaloric properties of polycrystalline (La0.5Pr0.5)(0.6)Ba0.4MnO3 (LPBMO), fabricated by a conventional solid-state reaction method, are reported herein. LPBMO undergoes a second-order paramagnetic-ferromagnetic phase transition around a Curie temperature T-C similar to 277 K. The maximum magnetic entropy change -Delta SMmax is similar to 3.22 J kg(-1) K-1 for a magnetic field change of 5 T. Based on the modified Arrott plot and the iterative Kouvel-Fisher methods, a set of critical exponents (beta = 0.514 +/- 0.010, gamma = 1.164 +/- 0.013, and Delta = 3.265 +/- 0.023) have been determined. These values are close to those expected for the mean-field model with long-range interactions below T-C and for the three-dimensional (3D) Ising model with short-range interactions above T-C. The effect of A-site codoping (La, Pr) on the magnetic and magnetocaloric properties of LPBMO has been analyzed and discussed.