We have prepared polycrystalline samples of LaSrRh$_{1-x}$Ga$_x$O$_4$ and LaSr$_{1-x}$Ca$_x$RhO$_4$,and have measured the x-ray diffraction, resistivity, Seebeck coefficient, magnetization and electron spin resonance in order to evaluate their electr
onic states. The energy gap evaluated from the resistivity and the Seebeck coefficient systematically changes with the Ga concentration, and suggests that the system changes from a small polaron insulator to a band insulator. We find that all the samples show Curie-Weiss-like susceptibility with a small Weiss temperature of the order of 1 K, which is seriously incompatible with the collective wisdom that a trivalent rhodium ion is nonmagnetic. We have determined the $g$ factor to be $g$=2.3 from the electron spin resonance, and the spin number to be $S$=1 from the magnetization-field curves by fitting with a modified Brillouin function. The fraction of the $S$=1 spins is 2--5%, which depends on the degree of disorder in the La/Sr/Ca-site, which implies that disorder near the apical oxygen is related to the magnetism of this system. A possible origin for the magnetic Rh$^{3+}$ ions is discussed.
We report measurements and analysis of magnetization, resistivity and thermopower of polycrystalline samples of the perovskite-type Co/Rh oxide La$_{0.8}$Sr$_{0.2}$Co$_{1-x}$Rh$_x$O$_{3-delta}$. This system constitutes a solid solution for a full ran
ge of $x$,in which the crystal structure changes from rhombohedral to orthorhombic symmetry with increasing Rh content $x$. The magnetization data reveal that the magnetic ground state immediately changes upon Rh substitution from ferromagnetic to paramagnetic with increasing $x$ near 0.25, which is close to the structural phase boundary. We find that one substituted Rh ion diminishes the saturation moment by 9 $mu_B$, which implies that one Rh$^{3+}$ ion makes a few magnetic Co$^{3+}$ ions nonmagnetic (the low spin state), and causes disorder in the spin state and the highest occupied orbital. In this disordered composition ($0.05le x le 0.75$), we find that the thermopower is anomalously enhanced below 50 K. In particular, the thermopower of $x$=0.5 is larger by a factor of 10 than those of $x$=0 and 1, and the temperature coefficient reaches 4 $mu$V/K$^2$ which is as large as that of heavy-fermion materials such as CeRu$_2$Si$_2$.
