Structural transition and magnetization reversal in rare earth doped R0.5Sr0.5Fe0.5Cr0.5O3 (RLa, Nd and Sm) perovskite oxides containing mixed valent cations at B site: Magnetic, optical and transport properties

In the current paper, the effect of lanthanide metal cation substitution on structural, magnetic, optical and transport properties of R0.5Sr0.5Fe0.5Cr0.5O3 (RLa, Nd and Sm) perovskite oxides have been investigated. Structural investigations reveal that there is a phase transition from cubic to orthorhombic symmetry with the doping of heavier rare earth ion. The findings of XPS studies point to the existence of mixed valence states of Cr and Fe ions. The change in magnetization in response to an external magnetic field reveals that the phases have a mostly antiferromagnetic character with some trace amounts of ferromagnetic components. In temperature dependent magnetization studies, magnetic reversal has been observed in Nd doped sample, while La and Sm doped samples only show positive magnetization. The band gap energies of the synthesized materials determined from the UV–vis reflectance spectroscopy lie in the range of 1.60–1.78 eV indicating the semi-conducting nature of the samples. The temperature-dependent resistivity measurements show semi-conducting behaviour of the samples with decreasing temperature which finally become insulating at low temperature. It has been shown that the VRH model provides the best fit for the resistivity data when compared to the other transport mechanism models that were used to describe the electrical conduction process of synthesized phases.