The influence of crystalline electrical field on magnetic and magnetocaloric properties in Er1−yTbyAl2 compounds

•Modeling Er(1−y)TbyAl2 intermetallic compounds.•Anisotropic magnetic entropy changes in Er(1−y)TbyAl2.•Reorientation temperature in Er(1−y)TbyAl2. We report the anisotropy of magnetic field-induced entropy change in rare earth Er1-yTbyAl2 compounds (y=0.00, 0.25, 0.50, 0.75 and 1.00). In the present work, we use a model Hamiltonian that includes the crystalline electrical field anisotropy in both Er and Tb magnetic sublattices, chemical disorder in exchange interactions among Er-Er, Tb-Tb and Er-Tb magnetic ions and the Zeeman effect. We investigated the isothermal magnetic entropy change ΔST for a magnetic field of 1T rotating from a hard 〈001〉 to the easy 〈111〉 direction. We also performed a systematic analysis of the reorientation temperature as a function of the magnetic field intensity. The anisotropic magnetocaloric effect highlights the applicability of this effect on the rotating magnetic refrigeration.