Direct Characterization of Electrocaloric and Magnetocaloric Responses in Multicaloric Composite Films

Researchers from the Jožef Stefan Institute, the University of Ljubljana, the University of Barcelona, IFW-Dresden and collaborating institutions have published the article Direct observation of room-temperature electrocaloric and magnetocaloric responses in multicaloric composite films.

The study combines the electrocaloric ceramic PMN-10PT with the magnetocaloric La-Fe-Si-Co (LFSC) alloy. Using Powder Aerosol Deposition (PAD), the team fabricated dense multicaloric composite films approximately 5 μm thick. PAD enables the fabrication of functional thick films entirely at room temperature and offers an attractive route for integrating advanced caloric materials into future cooling devices.
A key achievement of the work is the direct characterization of both electrocaloric and magnetocaloric responses in the same multicaloric composite film at room temperature. The composite films exhibited an approximately 32 % higher electrocaloric temperature change compared to pure PMN-10PT films. The enhancement is attributed to Maxwell–Wagner polarization effects induced by the embedded magnetocaloric particles.
In addition, the magnetocaloric response was directly measured in the same composite films, experimentally confirming their multicaloric functionality and demonstrating the feasibility of combining electrocaloric and magnetocaloric effects within a single aerosol-deposited structure.
The results provide new insights into the development of multifunctional caloric materials and demonstrate the potential of multicaloric composite films for future solid-state cooling and micro-cooling technologies targeting electronics, sensors, and other miniaturized systems.

Link: https://www.sciencedirect.com/science/article/pii/S0955221926004607