Anisotropic magnetocaloric effect and critical behavior in CrCl$_3$

Abstract

We report anisotropic magnetocaloric effect and magnetic critical behavior in van der Waals crystal CrCl$_3$. The maximum magnetic entropy change $-\Delta S_M^{max} \sim 14.6$ J kg$^{-1}$ K$^{-1}$ and the relative cooling power $RCP \sim 340.3$ J kg$^{-1}$ near $T_c$ with a magnetic field change of 5 T are much larger when compared to CrI$_{3}$ or CrBr$_{3}$. The rescaled $\Delta S_M(T,H)$ curves collapse onto a universal curve, confirming the second order ferromagnetic transition. Further critical behavior analysis around $T_c$ presents a set of critical exponents $\beta$ = 0.28(1) with $T_c$ = 19.4(2) K, $\gamma$ = 0.89(1) with $T_c$ = 18.95(8) K, and $\delta$ = 4.6(1) at $T_c$ = 19 K, which are close to those of theoretical tricritical mean field model.