LAUSR

Abstract This paper reports on an investigation carried out to determine the effects of Pr substitution on the magnetocaloric and critical behavior of La 0.8−x Pr x Sr 0.2 MnO 3 (x = 0.2, 0.4, 0.5) manganites. Structural studies show that all the compositions are single phase with a rhombohedral structure. Moreover, the lattice parameters and unit cell volume decrease with increasing Pr concentration while the Curie temperature (T C ) decreases with Pr 3+ substitution for La 3+ ions. Arrot's plots are used to determine the nature of the second order magnetic transition; no obvious hysteresis loss is observed in the vicinity of T C in any of the samples. An exhaustive study of the critical behavior of the paramagnetic to ferromagnetic transition is conducted to determine the values of the critical exponents (β, γ, and δ) based on the modified Arrot's plot and using the Kouvel-Fisher method. We have obtained the critical exponents used 3D-Heisenberg and 3D-Ising models. It was found that with increasing Pr doping the values of β and γ decrease and increase, respectively. This suggests an increase in the ferromagnetic short-range order as a result of increasing Pr content in the La 0.8−x Pr x Sr 0.2 MnO 3 samples. Maximum changes in the magnetic entropy were found to be 4.16, 3.88, and 3.8 J kg −1  K −1 under an applied magnetic field of 5 T while the Relative Cooling Power (RCP) values reached 174.7, 252.3, and 255 J kg −1 for x = 0.2, 0.4, and 0.5, respectively.