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Magnetocaloric effect and Magnetothermopower in the room temperature ferromagnet Pr0.6Sr0.4MnO3

We have investigated magnetization(M), magnetocaloric effect(MCE) and magnetothermopower(MTEP) in polycrystalline Pr0.6Sr0.4MnO3, which shows a second-order paramagnetic to ferromagnetic transition near room temperature (TC = 305 K). However, field-cooled M(T) within the long range ferromagnetic state shows an abrupt decrease at TS = 86 K for H < 3 T. The low temperature transition is first-order in nature as suggested by the hysteresis in M(T) and exothermic/endothermic peaks in differential thermal analysis for cooling and warming cycles. The anomaly at TS is attributed to a structural transition from orthorhombic to monoclinic phase. The magnetic entropy change is negative at TC but changes to positive at TS. Thermopower (Q) is negative from 350 K to 20 K, shows a rapid decrease at TC and a small cusp around TS in zero field. The MTEP reaches a maximum value of 25% for deltaH = 3 T around TC which is much higher than 15% dc magnetoresistance for the same field change. A linear relation between MTEP and magnetoresistance, and between delta Sm and Delta Q are found near TC. Further, ac magnetotransport in low dc magnetic fields (H less than or equal to 1 kOe), critical analysis of the paramagnetic to ferromagnetic transition and scaling behavior of the magnetic entropy change versus a reduced temperature under different magnetic fields are also reported.