Magnetic, transport, and magnetocaloric properties of double perovskite oxide LaCaMnCo O6

Magnetic, magnetoresistive, and magnetocaloric properties of a novel double perovskite oxide, namely, LaCaMnCo O6 have been studied. Polycrystalline sample of LaCaMnCo O6 has been synthesized by sol-gel technique. It has cubic crystal structure (space group Fm 3- m) at room temperature. The temperature variation in magnetization reveals a steep increase in magnetization around 168 K (TC). The magnetization does not even saturate at 5 K and a magnetic moment of 0.7 μB f.u. is obtained at 5 K in an applied field of 50 kOe. The electrical resistivity measurement indicates that the material is semiconducting-like in the temperature range of ∼300-50 K and below ∼50 K the sample becomes insulating. A maximum magnetoresistance (MR) of about 8% is found at 200 K in an applied field of 7 T and MR has a negative sign. The magnetocaloric effect is calculated from the magnetization versus temperature data and a maximum magnetic entropy change of 3.1 Jkg K for a field change of 11 kOe is obtained near TC. Thus a moderate magnetocaloric effect is achieved in rather low magnetic fields. © 2009 American Institute of Physics.