Magneto transport behavior of La0.67Pb0.33MnO3manganite system with various additives

Abstract

The nanostructured manganites show low field magnetoresistance, where grain boundary effects influence the phenomenon. The current investigation aims to comprehend the impact of the grain boundaries on the magnetic and magneto transport characteristics of La0.67Pb0.33MnO3 manganite with 1% of additives ZrO2, Bi2O3, and Li2CO3. Two step synthesis processes was adopted to prepare the pure and additive samples. The samples were characterized with XRD, XPS and FESEM to establish the structure, phase purity, oxidation states, elemental analysis and morphology respectively. The prepared samples were formed in single-phase rhombohedral structure with the enhanced crystallite and grain size with additives when compared to the pure sample. The observed magnetic transition temperature, are well above room temperature (TC = 353 K) and a soft ferromagnetic nature with 70% of ferromagnetic fraction is noticed at T = 300 K for all the studied samples. The metal insulator transition temperature (TP) remains invariant for ZrO2, Bi2O3 additives, while it reduces for Li2CO3 additive. It is observed that 1% of additives are acting as conduction barriers at the grain boundaries as a consequence there is an increase in resistivity. The contribution to magnetoresistance is seen as intrinsic and extrinsic in pure and additive materials exhibiting high percentage both at low and room temperature. All the sample shows an appreciable temperature coefficient of resistance percentage at their respective transition temperatures which can be made useful for bolometric applications. Conduction mechanisms in the ferromagnetic and paramagnetic phases were examined with the electron-magnon scattering and small polaron hopping model respectively.