Structural and magnetotransport properties of the Y doped A-site deficient double layered manganites La1.2-x square 0.2YxCa1.6Mn2O7

Abstract

We present structural, magnetic and electrical properties of the polycrystalline A-site-deficient yttrium doped double layered manganites La(1.2-)x square 0.2YxCa1.6Mn2O7 (x=0.2, 0.3 and 0.4) prepared by a solid state reaction method. The samples crystallize in the tetragonal structure with the space group I4/mmm. Doping with Y decreases the cell parameters and causes a decrease of the metal-insulator transition temperature. The same evolution with doping is also seen for the deduced Curie temperature from susceptibility curves which present a clear paramagnetic-ferromagnetic transition. The significant positive intrinsic magnetoresistance, shown in all samples, reaches 85% at 122 K under 7 T for 0.3 doped sample and can be attributed to the suppression of spin fluctuations via aligning the spins under external magnetic field, while the extrinsic one is attributed to the inter-grain spin-polarized tunneling across the grain boundaries. The simulation of the resistivity curves in the entire temperature range show that the percolation model is suitable to fit our results. The applied magnetic field increases the density of states near the Fermi level, which is in accordance with the observed decrease of resistivity.