[摘要]：The magnetic properties and magnetocaloric effect (MCE) in the ternary intermetallic compound ErMn2Si2 have been studied by magnetization and heat capacity measurements. A giant reversible MCE has been observed, accompanied by a second order magnetic phase transition from paramagnetic to ferromagnetic at similar to 4.5 K. Under a field change of 5 T, the maximum value of magnetic entropy change (-Delta S-M(max)) is 25.2 J kg(-1) K-1 with no thermal and field hysteresis loss, and the corresponding maximum value of adiabatic temperature change (Delta T-ad(max)) is 12.9 K. Particularly, the values of -Delta(max)(SM) and Delta T-ad(max) reached 20.0 J kg(-1) K-1 and 5.4 K for a low field change of 2 T, respectively. The present results indicate that the ErMn2Si2 compound is an attractive candidate for low temperature magnetic refrigeration. (C) 2012 American Institute of Physics. [http://dx.doi.org/10.1063/1.4704155]
