Magnetic and magnetocaloric properties of arc-melted and melt-spun TbNi1.5Fe0.5

Polycrystalline Laves phase intermetallic compound TbNi
1-x
Fe
x
with x = 0.5 (Cubic, MgCu
2
) has been prepared by arc-melting as well as melt-spinning techniques. The crystallite size of melt spun TbNi
1.5
Fe
0.5
has been found as ~ 46 nm from powder X-ray diffraction data. Transmission electron microscopy images on melt-spun sample show the formation of spherical particles of size ~ 62. Magnetization data reveal ferromagnetic ordering at 323 K and 319 K respectively for the arc-melted and melt-spun samples. Nearly constant magnetocaloric effect has been observed in the temperature range of 250 to 340 K indicating that the magnetic moments align over a broad temperature range and not completely near Curie temperature.