Large reversible caloric effect in FeRh thin films via a dual-stimulus multicaloric cycle

Giant magnetocaloric materials are promising for solid-state refrigeration, as an alternative to hazardous gases used in conventional cooling devices. A giant magnetocaloric effect was discovered near room temperature in near-equiatomic FeRh alloys some years before the benchmark study in Gd5Si2Ge2 that launched the field. However, FeRh has attracted significantly less interest in cooling applications mainly due to irreversibility in magnetocaloric cycles associated with the large hysteresis of its first-order metamagnetic phase transition. Here we overcome the irreversibility via a dual-stimulus magnetic-electric refrigeration cycle in FeRh thin films via coupling to a ferroelectric BaTiO3 substrate. This experimental realization of a multicaloric cycle yields larger reversible caloric effects than either stimulus alone. While magnetic hysteretic losses appear to be reduced by 96% in dual-stimulus loops, we show that the losses are simply transferred into an elastic cycle, contrary to common belief. Nevertheless, we show that these losses do not necessarily prohibit integration of FeRh in practical refrigeration systems. Our demonstration of a multicaloric refrigeration cycle suggests numerous designs for efficient solid-state cooling applications.