Structure, magnetic and magnetocaloric properties of RE11Ge8In2 (RE = Gd–Tm)

A new tetragonal Gd11Ge8In2 phase has been obtained by arc-melting and annealing at 800 °C. The structure has been determined and refined from single crystal X-ray diffraction data in the I4/mmm space group with a = 11.2091(6) and c = 16.3994(9) Å. Phases with the RE11Ge8In2 (RE = Gd–Tm) composition were subsequently synthesized and their structures were refined using X-ray powder diffraction methods. Magnetic measurements carried out on RE11Ge8In2 (RE = Gd–Tm) indicated a ferromagnetic ordering in all phases. The magnetocaloric effect in terms of the magnetic entropy change, ΔSmag, was evaluated for the Gd-, Tb- and Tm-containing samples, and the largest |ΔSmag| value of 10.6 J/kg K was obtained for Tm11Ge8In2.