LAUSR

While the unit cell volume of compounds belonging to the Mn 3Ga 1 − xSn xC (0 ≤ x ≤ 1) series shows a conformity with Vegard’s law, their magnetic and magnetocaloric properties behave differently from those of parent compounds Mn 3GaC and Mn 3SnC. A correlation between the observed magnetic properties and underlying magnetic and local structure suggests that replacing Ga atoms by larger atoms of Sn results in the formation of Ga-rich and Sn-rich clusters. As a result, even though the long range structure appears to be cubic, Mn atoms find themselves in two different local environments. The packing of these two different local structures into a single global structure induces tensile/compressive strains on the Mn 6C functional unit and is responsible for the observed magnetic properties across the entire solid solution range.