Magnetic cooling requires energy-efficient and eco-friendly alternatives to conventional rare earth element-based materials, which rely on materials with customized magnetic and structural properties.
This study introduces the growth of iron oxide thin films for designing magnetocaloric materials, using a phenomenological model to screen candidates for the magnetocaloric effect (MCE) and inverse magnetocaloric effect (IMCE). Based on the Curie temperature (TC) window concept, ferrimagneticFe3O4 and the antiferromagnetic α−Fe2O3 and FeO thin films are identified as potential candidates for structural transitions (TV) and spin rearrangement (TN) achieved by manipulating their nanoscale ordering temperatures. These oxide films exhibit IMCE with a maximum entropy change (ΔSmax) ranging from 0.13 to 1.87 J/kg-K at TV and/or TN, while demonstrating the MCE effect at low temperatures.Interestingly, we demonstrate that IMCE can occur in Fe3O4 thin films without a structural transition but with a change in anisotropy. Additionally, utilizing textured growth to tailor magneto-structural coupling in thin films is predicted as a novel approach for engineering magnetocaloric materials.