Eur. Phys. J. B 40, 427-431 (2004)
https://doi.org/10.1140/epjb/e2004-00274-x

Dynamics of the first-order magnetostructural transition in Gd₅(Si_xGe_1-x)₄

¹ Departament de Física Fonamental, Universitat de Barcelona, Diagonal 647, 08028 Barcelona, Catalonia, Spain
² Departament d'Estructura i Constituents de la Matèria, Universitat de Barcelona, Diagonal 647, 08028 Barcelona, Catalonia, Spain

Corresponding authors: ^a amilcar@ffn.ub.es - ^b xavier@ffn.ub.es

Received: 30 January 2004
Revised: 1 June 2004
Published online: 7 September 2004

Abstract

The dynamics at a mesoscopic scale of the first-order magnetostructural transition in a Gd₅(Si_xGe_1-x)₄ alloy with x=0.05 is studied. We examine the effect of inducing the transition either by T or H on the entropy change. In addition, we analyse the avalanches between metastable states during the transition. The athermal character of the transition is evidenced. It is also shown that cycling through the transition leads to a reproducible pattern with no characteristic size of the avalanches.