  The magnetocaloric effect of polycrystalline samples of pure and Y-doped
dipolar spin ice Dy2Ti2O7 was investigated at temperatures from nominally 0.3 K
to 6 K and in magnetic fields of up to 2 T. As well as being of intrinsic
interest, it is proposed that the magnetocaloric effect may be used as an
appropriate tool for the qualitative study of slow relaxation processes in the
spin ice regime. In the high temperature regime the temperature change on
adiabatic demagnetization was found to be consistent with previously published
entropy versus temperature curves. At low temperatures (T < 0.4 K) cooling by
adiabatic demagnetization was followed by an irreversible rise in temperature
that persisted after the removal of the applied field. The relaxation time
derived from this temperature rise was found to increase rapidly down to 0.3 K.
The data near to 0.3 K indicated a transition into a metastable state with much
slower relaxation, supporting recent neutron scattering results. In addition,
magnetic dilution of 50 % concentration was found to significantly prolong the
dynamical response in the milikelvin temperature range, in contrast with
results reported for higher temperatures at which the spin correlations are
suppressed. These observations are discussed in terms of defects and loop
correlations in the spin ice state.
