Abstract
We report on the effect of Mn site substitution of Al on thestructural, magnetic and transport properties of charge orderedPr0.5Ca0.5MnO3. This substitution introduces non-magnetic impurities in the Mn–O–Mn network, causes theMn3+/Mn4+ ratio to deviate away from unity and is seen to predominantly replaceMn4+ without introducing any appreciable change in the structure. The strength of charge orderingis suppressed with increasing Al doping, as is seen from AC susceptibility, the magnetocaloriceffect and DC resistivity. The observation of traces of charge ordering over an extended rangeof impurity doping of 10%, besides being indicative of the robust nature of charge ordering inPr0.5Ca0.5MnO3, also underscores the relatively insignificant effect that Al substitution has on the latticedistortions and the importance of non-magnetic substitutions. For all the samples, theconductivity in the temperature range above the charge ordering transition is observed tobe due to the adiabatic hopping of small polarons, whereas below the chargeordering transition, Mott’s variable range hopping mechanism is seen to be valid.
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