ISIS Neutron and Muon Source Data Journal

High resolution powder neutron diffraction on the incommensurate magnetocaloric material MnZnSb

Abstract: The domestic refrigerators that are currently in use are energy inefficient and require harmful gases to operate. A viable alternative cooling system is magnetic refrigeration, which require materials that exhibit the magnetocaloric effect. Recently, pronounced magnetocaloric properties have been observed in MnZnSb. This is reported to have a PbFCl-like structure with some ?disorder? that isn?t understood. We observe evidence of modulations and lowering of symmetry in diffraction patterns, but we require high resolution powder neutron diffraction to resolve it. The key objectives of the experiment are: 1) Determine the nuclear and magnetic structure of MnZnSb around the magnetic transition temperature (302K) to understand the magnetocaloric effect observed in this compound and 2) Determine the nuclear structure below a structural transition observed at 130K which hasn?t been reported.

Principal Investigator: Dr Jonathan Alaria
Experimenter: Dr John Claridge
Local Contact: Dr Alexandra Gibbs
Experimenter: Mr Kieran Routledge

DOI: 10.5286/ISIS.E.RB2010592

ISIS Experiment Number: RB2010592

Publisher: STFC ISIS Neutron and Muon Source

Data format: RAW/Nexus
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Data Citation

The recommended format for citing this dataset in a research publication is as:
[author], [date], [title], [publisher], [doi]

For Example:
Dr Jonathan Alaria et al; (2020): High resolution powder neutron diffraction on the incommensurate magnetocaloric material MnZnSb, STFC ISIS Neutron and Muon Source, https://doi.org/10.5286/ISIS.E.RB2010592

Data is released under the CC-BY-4.0 license.