Intrinsic structural distortion assisted optical and magnetic properties of orthorhombic rare-earth perovskite La1-xEuxCrO3: Effect of t-e hybridization

Abstract

Nanocrystalline orthochromatic perovskite structured La1-xEuxCrO3 (x = 0.0, 0.01, 0.03 and 0.05) compounds have been prepared via a solid-state reaction method calcined at a temperature 1200 °C. Here, we investigate the influence of Eu3+ on the structural, optical and magnetic properties of orthorhombic perovskite structured pure and doped LaCrO3 (LCO) samples with the help of surface characterizations such as SEM and XPS. Orthorhombic Pbnm structure and single-phase nature have been confirmed by the Reitveld refinement of X-ray diffraction data in all the samples. Predominantly, an optical gap of 3.81 eV has been produced experimentally, which is in good agreement with charge transfer (CT) gap and hence, explains the red color of Eu3+ doped LCO compounds. The study of the crystallographic data revealed a strong correlation between structural and magnetic properties. For instance, intrinsic structural distortion facilitates valance charge transfer (VCT) to the empty e component of the hybridized orbital, i.e., t2g3−O−eo and leads to observed weak ferromagnetism (WFM) coupling in anti-ferromagnetic LCO and doped LCO compounds.