ABSTRACT
In this chapter the magnetocaloric properties of amorphous materials are considered. The general feature of amorphous alloys is a broadness of magnetic transition from paramagnetic to magnetically ordered state, which is mostly related to fluctuation of the exchange interactions and crystalline electric field due to the structural disorder of these materials. The composition inhomogeneities and the possible presence of different crystalline phases can also contribute to this effect. The magnetic transition broadness leads to lower magnetic entropy change, magnetocaloric effect and heat capacity anomaly at the transition temperature because these values are directly proportional to the derivative of magnetization on temperature @M=@T-see equations (2.9a), (2.16) and (2.161).
