abstract
We have synthesized PrCr0.85Mn0.15O3 (PCMO) chromite and investigated the influence of manganese (Mn) doping at Cr-sites on the structural, magnetic, magnetocaloric and thermal properties of PrCrO3 compound. No structural transition was observed with Mn substitution and the doped compound crystallized into distorted orthorhombic structure with Pnma space group which was confirmed by Rietveld refinement of x-ray powder diffraction patterns. Neel temperature, noticed at 168 K from the temperature variation of magnetization, smaller than that reported for PrCrO3, indicated the influence of Mn3+ substitution in decreasing the antiferromagnetic ordering. Magnetization was almost eight times higher than that reported for undoped sample. Magnetocaloric effect measured via the magnetic entropy change and relative cooling power demonstrated significant values in the temperature range 10-20 K. The values of magnetic entropy change are much superior to that reported for other polycrystalline orthochromites and even at smaller applied field strength. The material exhibited second order magnetic phase transition. The Debye temperature and the density of states at Fermi level were also calculated. The overall results make PrCr0.85Mn0.15O3 chromite a potential candidate to replace the existing materials for low temperature magnetic refrigeration.
keywords
ELECTRICAL-PROPERTIES; WEAK FERROMAGNETISM; YCRO3; MORPHOLOGY; TRANSPORT; CAPACITY; REVERSAL; DYCRO3; SYSTEM
subject category
Physics
authors
Kumar, S; Coondoo, I; Vasundhara, M; Kumar, S; Kholkin, AL; Panwar, N
our authors
Andrei Kholkin
Retired Researcher
Indrani Coondoo
Junior Researcheracknowledgements
The author SK would like to thank University Grant - Commission, New Delhi for providing Rajiv Gandhi National Fellowship (RGNF) whereas IC acknowledges the financial support from FCT, Portugal through SFRH/BPD/81032/2011. The authors would also like to thank Council of Scientific and Industrial Research networking projects SURE-CSC0132 and INTELCOAT-CSC0114 for partially supporting this work. ALK acknowledges CICECO-Aveiro Institute of Materials (Ref FCT UID/CTM/50011/2013) financed by national funds through the FCT/MEC and, when applicable, co-financed by FEDER under the PT2020 Partnership Agreement.