Critical phenomena and estimation of the spontaneous magnetization from a mean field analysis of the magnetic entropy change in La0.7Ca0.1Pb0.2Mn0.95Al0.025Sn0.025O3.

Abstract

In the present work, we have studied the universal critical behavior in the perovskite-manganite compound La0.7Ca0.1Pb0.2Mn0.95Al0.025Sn0.025O3. Experimental results revealed that all samples exhibit a second-order magnetic phase transition. To study the critical behavior of the paramagnetic–ferromagnetic transition, various techniques such as modified Arrott plots, the Kouvel–Fisher method and critical isotherm analysis were used to determine the values of the Curie temperature TC, as well as the critical exponents β (corresponding to the spontaneous magnetization), γ (corresponding to the initial susceptibility) and δ (corresponding to the critical magnetization isotherm). The critical exponent values for our sample are consistent with the prediction of the mean field model (β = 0.46, γ = 1.0, and δ = 2.94 at an average TC = 302.12 K), indicating that the magnetic interactions are long-range. The reliability of the critical exponent values was confirmed by the Widom scaling relation (WSR) and the universal scaling hypothesis. Moreover, to estimate the spontaneous magnetization of La0.7Ca0.1Pb0.2Mn0.95Al0.025Sn0.025O3 perovskite, we used the magnetic entropy change (ΔSM), obtained from isothermal magnetization. The results obtained through this approach are compared to those obtained from classical analysis using Arrott curves. An excellent agreement is found between this approach and the one obtained from the extrapolation of the Arrott curves.