  Mechanical control of magnetic properties in magnetostrictive thin films
offers the unexplored opportunity to employ surface wave acoustics in such a
way that acoustic triggers dynamic magnetic effects. The strain-induced
modulation of the magnetic anisotropy can play the role of a high frequency
varying effective magnetic field leading to ultrasonic tuning of electronic and
magnetic properties of nanostructured materials, eventually integrated in
semiconductor technology. Here, we report about the opportunity to employ
surface acoustic waves to trigger magnetocaloric effect in
MnAs(100nm)/GaAs(001) thin films. During the MnAs magnetostructural phase
transition, in an interval range around room temperature (0{\deg}C -
60{\deg}C), ultrasonic waves (170 MHz) are strongly attenuated by the phase
coexistence (up to 150 dB/cm). We show that the giant magnetocaloric effect of
MnAs is responsible of the observed phenomenon. By a simple anelastic model we
describe the temperature and the external magnetic field dependence of such a
huge ultrasound attenuation. Strain-manipulation of the magnetocaloric effect
could be a further interesting route for dynamic and static caloritronics and
spintronics applications in semiconductor technology.
