Excellent Glass Forming Ability and Refrigeration Capacity of a Gd₅₅Al₂₀Ni₁₂Co₁₀Mn₃ Bulk Metallic Glass

We investigate an excellent refrigeration capacity R_c of Gd₅₅Al₂₀Ni₁₂Co₁₀Mn₃ bulk metallic glass (BMG). The Gd₅₅Al₂₀Ni₁₂Co₁₀Mn₃ glassy rod is subjected to Cu mold suction-casting to prepare bulky metallic glasses, with a diameter of 3 mm. The glass forming ability as well as the magnetic properties of the BMG is investigated. The BMG exhibits a rather high glass formation ability with critical diameter of about 5.6 mm. The peak value of magnetic entropy change of about 8 J?kg^?1K^?1 is obtained in this alloy. This BMG alloy also exhibits excellent magnetic refrigerant capacity of about 880 J?kg^?1 under the field of 5 T and 35% larger than that of other alloys reported previously, supposed to be closely related to the high effective moment (～7.3μ_B) of the Gd₅₅Al₂₀Ni₁₂Co₁₀Mn₃ BMG.