Structural and Magnetic Properties of Pr0.6Sr0.4Mn1−x Fe x O3 (0≤x≤0.3) Manganites Oxide Prepared by the Ball Milling Method

Abstract

We present the structural and magnetic properties of Pr0.6Sr0.4Mn1 − xFexO3 (x = 0, 0.1, 0.2, and 0.3) com- pounds. Samples have been prepared by the ball milling method. Rietveld refinements of the X-ray powder diffrac- tion data show that all our synthesized samples are single phase and crystallize in the orthorhombic symmetry with the Pnma space group. The unit cell volume increases with increasing the Fe content. The infrared spectrum shows two active bands, which can be ascribed to the internal stretching and bending modes. The magnetization measurements ver- sus temperature showed that Fe doping leads to a weakening of the ferromagnetic ordering at low temperature, the Curie temperature TC decreases from 300 K for x = 0. 0t o 88 Kf or x = 0.2. The magnetization versus applied magnetic mea- surements at low temperature lead to conclude that the sub- stitution of Mn 3+ ions by Fe 3+ ions triggers antiferromag- netic interactions between the Fe 3+ and Mn 4+ spins, and also the magnetization versus applied magnetic measure- ments at room temperature shows a small hysteresis loop and a low coercive field, which indicates that the samples are superparamagnetic.