Abstract The magnetocaloric effect and its most straightforward application, magnetic refrigeration, are topics of current interest due to the potential improvement of energy efficiency of cooling and temperature control systems, in combination with other environmental benefits associated to a technology that does not rely on the compression/expansion of harmful gases. This review presents the fundamentals of the effect, the techniques for its measurement with consideration of possible artifacts found in the characterization of the samples, a comprehensive and comparative analysis of different magnetocaloric materials, as well as possible routes to improve their performance. An overview of the different magnetocaloric prototypes found in literature as well as alternative applications of the magnetocaloric effect for fundamental studies of phase transitions are also included.

中文翻译：

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磁热效应：从材料研究到制冷装置

摘要 磁热效应及其最直接的应用磁制冷是当前感兴趣的主题，因为冷却和温度控制系统的能源效率的潜在改进，以及与不依赖于压缩的技术相关的其他环境效益。 / 有害气体的膨胀。本综述介绍了该效应的基本原理、考虑到样品表征中可能出现的伪影的测量技术、对不同磁热材料的综合比较分析，以及提高其性能的可能途径。