Magnetic phase transition and clustered state in Ca-doped lanthanum cobaltite and manganite with insulator ground states* * In memory of Ya M Mukovskii who sadly passed away before this article was published.

Abstract

The transport and magnetic properties (ac linear and nonlinear (second and third orders) susceptibilities) are presented for La0.8Ca0.2MnO3 and La0.8Ca0.2CoO3 single crystals with insulator ground states. The ferromagnetic (FM) clusters with similar magnetic characteristics originate in the paramagnetic phases of both compounds below some temperature T∗. At high temperatures the FM clusters arise at the preferable sites that can be attributed to the chemical inhomogeneities, their density being weakly T-dependent. On cooling a homogeneous nucleation of the FM clusters develops below a definite temperature T# that is characterized by a fast growth of their density. These two stages are observed in both compounds. At the third stage a coalescence of the FM clusters starts in the doped cobaltite, whereas in the manganite the development of matrix FM ordering occurs which changes a cluster’s behavior. The indicated features support the common nature of the cluster state in the doped cobaltite and manganite. The difference in their evolution is a consequence of the different magnetic properties of the matrices in the manganite and cobaltite.