Partially-disordered to frozen-state crossover induced magnetocaloric properties of the antiferromagnetic one-dimensional spin-chain Sr(3)ColrO(6)

Low-dimensional and geometrically frustrated spin-chain Sr-3(Co/Ni)IrO6 compounds exhibit interesting physical phenomena due to the exotic anisotropy associated with the spin-orbit entangled Ir4+ state. Temperature dependent magnetic susceptibility of polycrystalline Sr3CoIrO6 characterizes the partially-disordered antiferromagnetic with T-N1 similar to 90 K and the frozen state of this antiferromagnetic order below T-N2 similar to 30 K. The fitting of chi T versus T (K) data to the Ising model reveal that the intra-chain exchange interactions are ferromagnetic, whereas the inter-chain exchange correlations are antiferromagnetic. Field-induced alteration of the partially-disordered antiferromagnetic state in the temperature regime of T-N1 <= T <= T-N2 is responsible for the anomalous magnetic hysteresis loop. Further, a large value of isothermal magnetic-entropy change (Delta S-M similar to 22 J kg(-1)K(-1) for 7 T), absence of thermal hysteresis in magnetization and highly insulating nature consents Sr3CoIrO6 to be classified as a good magnetocaloric material for the low-temperature refrigeration.