The d.c. magnetization and magnetic relaxation studies of the calcium doped samples, Y0.95Ca0.05BaCo2O5.5 and YBa0.95Ca0.05Co2O5.5, show the existence of a magnetic glass like behaviour in the family of cobaltites for the first time. Our investigatio
ns reveal glass-like arrest of kinetics at low temperature which prevents the system from reaching its magnetic ground state. We show that the low temperature state of these calcium doped phases, which consists of coexisting antiferromagnetic and ferro (or ferri) magnetic phase fractions, can be tuned in a number of ways. Our observations establish that the low temperature state of this oxide is not in thermal equilibrium. The glassy state is formed with the assistance of an external magnetic field, which makes it distinctly different from the more well known metastable state, the spin glass state. The cooling field can tune the fractions of the coexisting phases, and the glass-like state formed at low temperature can also be devitrified by warming the sample. The role of Ca doping in the appearance of these phenomena is discussed in terms of phase separation, involving Co3+ disproportionation into Co4+ ferromagnetic clusters and Co2+ antiferromagnetic clusters.
Rare earth perovskite cobaltites are increasingly recognized as materials of importance due to rich physics and chemistry in their ordered-disordered structure for the same composition. Apart from colossal magnetoresistance effect, like manganites, t
he different forms of cobaltites exhibit interesting phenomena including spin, charge and orbital ordering, electronic phase separation, insulator-metal transition, large thermoelectric power at low temperature. Moreover, the cobaltites which display colossal magnetoresistance effect could be used as read heads in magnetic data storage and also in other applications depending upon their particular properties. The A-site ordereddisordered cobaltites exhibit ferromagnetism and metal-insulator transitions as well as other properties depending on the composition, size of A-site cations and various external factors such as pressure, temperature, magnetic field etc. Ordered cobaltites, having a 112-type layered structure, are also reported to have an effectively stronger electron coupling due to layered A-site cationic ordering. Most importantly for the present article we focus on La-Ba-Co-O based ordered-disordered perovskite phases, which exhibit interesting magnetic and electron transport properties with ferromagnetic transition, TC ~ 177K, and it being the first member of lanthanide series. Zener double exchange mechanism considered to be crucial for understanding basic physics of the ferromagneticmetallic phase, yet does not explain clearly the insulating-type phase. In terms of electron transport the ferromagnetic-metallic or insulating/semiconducting states have been discussed in the present article with different types of hopping model.
Investigation of the oxygen-deficient 112-type ordered oxides of the type LnBaCoMnO5+delta (Ln = Nd, Eu) evidences certain unusual magnetic behavior at low temperatures, compared to the LnBaCo2O5+delta cobaltites. One observes that the substitution o
f manganese for cobalt suppresses the ferromagnetic state and induces strong antiferromagnetic interactions. Importantly, NdBaCoMnO5.9 depicts a clear paramagnetic to antiferromagnetic type transition around 220 K, whereas for EuBaCoMnO5.7 one observes an unusual magnetic behavior below 177 K which consists of ferromagnetic regions embedded in an antiferromagnetic matrix. The existence of two sorts of crystallographic sites for Co/Mn and their mixed valence states favor the ferromagnetic interaction whereas antiferromagnetism originates from the Co3+-O-Co3+ and Mn4+-O-Mn4+ interactions. Unlike the parent compounds, the present Mn-substituted phases do not exhibit prominent magnetoresistance effects in the temperature range 75-400K.
