Cationic Ordering and Microstructural Effects in the Ferromagnetic Perovskite La0.5Ba0.5CoO3: Impact upon Magnetotransport Properties

The synthesis and structural study of the stoichiometric perovskite La0.5Ba0.5CoO3 have allowed three forms to be isolated. Besides the disordered La0.5Ba0.5CoO3 and the perfectly ordered layered LaBaCo2O6, a third form called nanoscale-ordered LaBaCo2O6, is obtained. As evidenced by transmission electron microscopy investigations, the latter consists of 112-type 90 degree oriented domains fitted into each other at a nanometer scale which induce large strains and consequently local atomic scale lattice distortions. These three ferromagnetic perovskites exhibit practically the same Tc (174-179 K), but differently from the other phases, the nanoscale-ordered LaBaCo2O6 is a hard ferromagnet, with Hc = 4.2 kOe, due to the strains which may pin domain walls, preventing the reversal of the spins in a magnetic field. The magnetotransport properties of these phases show that all of them exhibit a maximum intrinsic magnetoresistance, close to 6-7 % around Tc under 70 kOe but that the ordered phase exhibits a much higher tunnelling magnetoresistance effect at low temperature of about 15 % against 4 % due to the grain boundary effects.