  We present a study of the magnetocaloric effect in La5/8-yPryCa3/8MnO3
(y=0.3) and Pr0.5Ca0.09Sr0.41MnO3 manganites. The low temperature state of both
ystems is the result of a competition between the antiferromagnetic and
ferromagnetic phases. The samples display magnetocaloric effect evidenced in an
adiabatic temperature change during a metamagnetic transition from an
antiferromagnetic to a ferromagnetic phase . As additional features,
La5/8-yPryCa3/8MnO3 exhibits phase separation characterized by the coexistence
of antiferromagnetic and ferromagnetic phases and Pr0.5Ca0.09Sr0.41MnO3
displays inverse magnetocaloric effect in which temperature decreases while
applying an external magnetic field. In both cases, a significant part of the
magnetocaloric effect appears from non-reversible processes. As the traditional
thermodynamic description of the effect usually deals with reversible
transitions, we developed an alternative way to calculate the adiabatic
temperature change in terms of the change of the relative ferromagnetic
fraction induced by magnetic field. To evaluate our model, we performed direct
measurement of the sample's adiabatic temperature change by means of a
differential thermal analysis. An excellent agreement has been obtained between
experimental and calculated data. These results show that metamagnetic
transition in manganites play an important role in the study of magnetic
refrigeration.
