Nanostructuring as a procedure to control the field dependence of the magnetocaloric effect

In this work, the field dependence of the magnetocaloric effect of Gd bulk samples has been enhanced through nanostructuring of the material. Nanostructuring consists in multilayers preparation by alternative rf-sputtering deposition of Gd layers and Ti spacers onto glass substrates. The results obtained for the multilayers were compared to those obtained for the Gd bulk. Assuming a power law for the field dependence of the magnetic entropy change (ΔSM∝Hn), higher field dependences close to the transition in a wider temperature range are obtained for the multilayer material (n=1.0) with respect to the bulk counterpart (n=0.78). The effect of a Curie temperature distribution in the multilayer material (due to variations of the layer thickness) has been studied through numerical simulations to explain the observed field dependence of the magnetocaloric effect, obtaining a remarkable agreement between experiments and results. [Display omitted] •The MCE of Gd/Ti multilayers and its field dependence has been studied.•Nanostructuring enhances the field responsiveness of MCE near Tc.•Curie temperature distributions due to finite size scaling are responsible for this.•A combination of numerical simulations and experimental results are presented.•This is a possibility for improving MCE response at the nanoscale.