Magnetic susceptibility and specific heat of Pr<inf>2-x</inf>Ce<inf>x</inf>CuO<inf>4-y</inf>

We report here the measurements of magnetic susceptibility of Pr2-xCexCuO4-y (x=0, 0.05 and 0.15) from 2K to 300K and the specific heat of Pr1.85Ce0.15CuO4 between 6K and 60K. Fitting of the magnetic susceptibility data to a Curie-Weiss law gave effective magnetic moment (peff) values close to the free ion value of 3.58μB for Pr3+. peff was found to decrease with increase in cerium concentration. The site symmetry of Pr3+ in Pr2-xCexCuO4-y (PCCO) host is D4h and a crystal field (CF) Hamiltonian appropriate to tetragonal symmetry was used to analyze the magnetic susceptibility data. J-mixing of all the thirteen multiplets of Pr3+ and intermediate coupled wave functions have been included. A best set of CF parameters obtained not only explains the magnetic susceptibility but also the inelastic neutron scattering spectra (INS) reasonably well. The Schottky component together with Debye and Einstein contributions successfully accounts for the measured specific heat. © 1995 Plenum Publishing Corporation.