Electron spin resonance studies of (La0.6Ln0.4)0.67Ca0.33MnO3 (Ln = La, Pr, Nd and Sm) nanoparticles at different temperatures

Abstract

In this work, (La0.6Ln0.4)0.67Ca0.33MnO3 (Ln = La, Pr, Nd and Sm) nanoparticles (NPs) synthesized by sol-gel process were investigated by electron spin resonance (ESR) in the temperature range 100–330 K. At the high temperature the ESR signals of La0.67Ca0.33MnO3 (LCMO) NPs only consist of a single peak with Landé g factor of 2.0. This signal is contributed from the paramagnetic (PM) Mn ions in the LCMO NPs. With decreasing the temperature the PM resonance line is split into two resonance lines, one is ferromagnetic (FM) resonance line shifting towards low field while the other is antiferromagnetic (AFM) resonance line moving to a high field. The resonance peak-to-peak spectra linewidth, increases monotonically with decreasing the temperature owing to the strong double exchange interactions below the Curie temperature (T C). Resonance field is almost temperature independent in the PM phase whereas it drops fast at temperature below T C. Consequently, the Landé g factor in the PM region is very close to 2.0 whereas in the range of 2.17–2.47 under FM state due to the strong FM interactions. For the Pr (Nd)-doped LCMO NPs below T C, their g values are in the range of 2.04–2.18 due to the substantial reduction of the FM interactions caused by the Pr (Nd)-doping at La-site. The g values of the Sm-doped LCMO NPs exhibit a slight fluctuation around 1.88 (but smaller than 2.0) within the measured temperature due to the existence of weak magnetic interactions under the PM states.