Magnetocaloric effect from indirect measurements: Magnetization and heat capacity

Accurate values for the magnetocaloric effect can be obtained from both magnetization and heat-capacity data. A reliable estimate of the experimental errors in the calculated magnetocaloric effect can be made from the known experimental errors of the measured physical properties. Attempts in the past to simplify the basic thermodynamic relation to allow the calculation of the adiabatic temperature change from the heat capacity at constant field and the magnetic entropy change calculated from the magnetization data fail because the assumption that heat capacity is magnetic-field independent is erroneous. A suitable approach to carry out these calculations from the combined heat capacity and magnetization data is suggested. (C) 1999 American Institute of Physics. [S0021-8979(99)04013-X].