Equiatomic quinary rare-earth rich amorphous ribbons with excellent magnetocaloric performance

The glass forming ability, microstructure, magnetism and magnetocaloric effect (MCE) in two quinary rare-earth rich amorphous ribbons of Tm20Ho20Gd20Co20Ni20 and Tm20Ho20Gd20Co20Cu20 are reported. Both amorphous ribbons exhibit excellent glass forming ability and a table-like MCE. In addition to large magnetic entropy change of ∼14.0 J/kg-K, an extremely high refrigerant capacity of ∼790 J/kg are achieved which can almost cover the temperature range from liquid hydrogen to liquid nitrogen for the magnetic field change of 0–7 T for both ribbons. Therefore, the quinary rare-earth rich amorphous ribbons can be proposed as a new class of promising magnetic refrigeration materials.