On the Mechanism of the Spin State Transition of (Pr1-ySmy)1-xCaxCoO3

In half-doped Pr0.50A0.50CoO3 metallic perovskites, the spin-lattice coupling brings about distinct magnetostructural transitions for A=Ca and A=Sr at temperatures close to 100 K. However, the ground magnetic properties of Pr0.50Sr0.50CoO3 (PSCO) strongly differ from Pr0.50Ca0.50CoO3 ones, where a partial Pr3+ to Pr4+ valence shift and Co spin transition makes the system insulating below the transition. This work investigates and describes the relationship between the Imma-to...

We report studies of polycrystalline samples of the metallic ferromagnet Pr0.5Sr0.5CoO3 through measurements of the magnetization, a.c. magnetic susceptibility, resistivity, and specific heat. We find an unusual anomaly around TA = 120 K, much below the ferromagnetic transition (TC = 226 K). The anomaly is manifested in field cooled magnetization as a downward step in low fields (H less than or equal to 0.01 T) but is transformed into an upward step for H greater than or equa...

We use a combination of dynamical mean-field model calculations and LDA+U material specific calculations to investigate the low temperature phase transition in the compounds from the (Pr$_{1-y}$R$_y$)$_x$Ca$_{1-x}$CoO$_3$ (R=Nd, Sm, Eu, Gd, Tb, Y) family (PCCO). The transition, marked by a sharp peak in the specific heat, leads to an exponential increase of dc resistivity and a drop of the magnetic susceptibility, but no order parameter has been identified yet. We show that c...

Ferromagnetic insulator Pr0.8Ca0.2Mn1-yCoyO3 (0 <= y <= 0.7) thin films were epitaxially grown on (LaAlO3)0.3-(SrAl0.5Ta0.5O3)0.7 (100) substrates by pulsed laser deposition. To probe the ferromagnetic insulator state of hole-doped manganites, the Co content dependences of the structural, magnetic, and transport properties were studied. Variation of lattice constant by the substitution of Co ions is well reproduced considering that divalent and trivalent Co ions substitute fo...

The diamagnetic-paramagnetic and insulator-metal transitions in LnCoO3 perovskites (Ln = La, Y, rare earths) are reinterpreted and modeled as a two-level excitation process. In distinction to previous models, the present approach can be characterized as a LS-HS-IS (low-high-intermediate spin) scenario. The first level is the local excitation of HS Co3+ species in the LS ground state. The second excitation is based on the interatomic electron transfer between the LS/HS pairs, ...

Detailed magnetization and magneto-transport measurements studies are carried out to unearth the anomalous magnetism of Pr in PrCoAsO compound. The studied PrCoAsO sample is single phase and crystallized in the tetragonal structure with space group P4/nmm in analogy of ZrCuSiAs type compounds. Detailed magnetization measurements showed that Co moments in PrCoAsO exhibit weakly itinerant ferromagnetic Co spins ordering at below 80 K with a small magnetic moments of 0.12 muB/f....

We report the synthesis and physical property characterization of PrFe1-xCoxAsO with x = 0.0 to 1.0. The studied samples are synthesized by solid state reaction route via vacuum encapsulation method. The pristine compound PrFeAsO does not show superconductivity, but rather exhibits a metallic step like transition due to spin density wave ordering of Fe moments below 150 K, followed by another upward step due to anomalous ordering of Pr moments at 12 K. Both the Fe-SDW and Pr-...

Resistivity and dc magnetization measurements were performed for the polycrystalline Pr$_{0.5}$Ca$_{0.5}$Co$_{1-x}$Fe$_{x}$O$_{3-\delta}$ ($x$ = 0, 0.05, 0.10 and 0.15) samples. The as-fabricated samples exhibit ferromagnetic (FM) transition and the transition temperature increases with increasing the iron doping level. Annealing under high oxygen pressure induces a spin-state transition of Co ions in the \emph{iron-free} sample and such transition is reinforced with increasi...

We study experimentally and theoretically the effect of Eu doping and partial oxygen isotope substitution on the transport and magnetic characteristics and spin-state transitions in (Pr$_{1-y}$Eu$_y$)$_{0.7}$Ca$_{0.3}$CoO$_3$ cobaltites. The Eu doping level $y$ is chosen in the range of the phase diagram near the crossover between the ferromagnetic and spin-state transitions ($0.10 < y < 0.20$). We prepared a series of samples with different degrees of enrichment by the heavy...

We systematically investigate effect of oxygen isotope in $(Pr_{1-x}Sm_x)_{0.7}Ca_{0.3}CoO_3$ which shows a crossover with x from ferromagnetic metal to the insulator with spin-state transition. A striking feature is that effect of oxygen isotope on the ferromagnetic transition is negligible in the metallic phase, while replacing $^{16}O$ with $^{18}O$ leads to a giant up-shift of the spin-state transition temperature ($T_s$) in the insulating phase, especially $T_s$ shifts f...