Specific heat of praseodymium doped yttrium barium copper oxide

The specific heat of samples of Y1-xPrxBa2Cu3O7-y for x = 0.1 to 0.5 has been measured from 4.5 to 65 K using a quasi-adiabatic calorimeter. A plot of C/T vs T2 shows a linear behavior below 20 K. The excess specific heat due to praseodymium in all the compounds is obtained by subtracting the specific heat of YBa2Cu3O7-x from the that of doped compound. The excess specific heat shows a peak near 19 K and its height decreases with increase in x. The excess specific heat could be interpreted on the basis of Schottky anomalies due to Pr3+ and Pr4+ ions, the peak at 19 K arising from the former. The fraction of Pr3+ ion obtained from a fit to the specific heat curves decreases from 0.30 for x = 0.1 to 0.05 for x = 0.5. © 1988.