Improvement of electrical and magnetic properties in La0.67Ca0.33Mn0.97Co0.03O3 ceramic by Ag doping

Abstract

For the perovskite manganite La1-xCaxMnO3, achieving high temperature coefficient of resistance (TCR) and magnetoresistance (MR) is the key to realize its potential applications. In this study, high-quality La0.67Ca0.33Mn0.97Co0.03O3:Agx polycrystalline ceramics were prepared by the sol-gel method. The results show that Ag doping has important impact on metal-insulator and ferromagnetic-paramagnetic transitions. A Ag doping amount increases, the grain size of the samples increases at x = 0.05 and then decreases. The doping of Ag can improve the crystalline quality of the samples and enhance the connectivity between grains, thereby improving the metallicity of the system. Additionally, with Ag doping amount increases, the resistivity of the samples gradually decreased, while the Curie temperature and the metal-insulator transition temperature gradually increased. Especially after Ag doping, both the TCR peak (TCRpeak) and the MR peak (MRpeak) values are significantly improved. The TCRpeak reaches 65.2%·K−1 at x = 0.1, while the MRpeak is as high as 82.6% at x = 0.05 under 1 T magnetic field. Doping perovskite manganite ceramics with Co and Ag can greatly optimize their TCR and MR, favoring the potential applications of these materials.