This webcast is a recording of the presentation given by Karl Gschneidner on March 10, 2008 at the TMS 2008 Annual Meeting & Exhibition. This presentation was delivered as the Acta Materialia Gold Medal Lecture during the symposium, "Recent Developments in Rare Earth Science and Technology."

The following is an abstract of the presentation:

The magnetocaloric effect (MCE) is the ability of a magnetic material, particularly near its Curie temperature, to heat up when a magnetic field is applied (magnetization) and to cool when the field is removed (demagnetization). A number of new materials, especially Gd5(Si1-xGex)4, have outstanding MCE properties, significantly better than the well known standard, Gd metal. The giant MCE effect observed in the Gd5(Si1-xGex)4 alloys for x \\8805; 0.5 is due to a coupled magnetostructural transformation. The coupled transformation also accounts for several other interesting phenomena - giant magnetoresistance; colossal magnetostriction; spontaneous generation of voltage; unusual training, dynamical and thermal phenomena; acoustic emissions; and a novel glass-like kinetically retarded state. Extension of the work on the MCE has led to the near commercialization of magnetic refrigeration as a viable cooling technology, and to the discovery of ductile RM (R = rare earth, T = transition metal) B2 cesium chloride-type intermetallic compounds.

This presentation is available at no charge through support from Acta Materialia.

Link to Webcast Home Page