Effect of Ga doping on magnetotransport properties in collosal magnetoresistive La0.7Ca0.3Mn1-xGaxO3 (0 < x < 0.1)

Samples of La0.7Ca0.3Mn1-xGaxO3 with x = 0, 0.025, 0.05 and 0.10 were prepared by standard solid-state reaction. They were first characterized chemically, including the microstructure. The magnetic properties and various transport properties, i.e. the electrical resistivity, magnetoresistivity (for a field below 8T), thermoelectric power and thermal conductivity measured each time on the same sample, are reported. The markedly different behavior of the x = 0.1 sample from those with a smaller Ga content, is discussed. The dilution of the Mn3+/Mn4+ interactions with Ga doping considerably reduces the ferromagnetic double exchange interaction within the manganese lattice leading to a decrease of the Curie temperature. The polaron binding energy varies from 224 to 243 meV with increased Ga doping.Comment: submitted to J Magnet Magnet Mater; 13 figures; 2 tables; 38 reference

Optical and structural characterization of TiO2 films doped with silver nanoparticles obtained by sol-gel method

Nanostructured titanium oxide films with incorporated Ag nanoparticles were deposited by sol-gel spin coating method. The films were annealed at 300 °C, 400 °C, 500 °C and 600 °C in oxygen and nitrogen ambient. X-ray diffraction (XRD), Fourier Transform Infrared Spectroscopy (FTIR) and UV-VIS spectroscopy had been applied for studying the influence of the thermal treatments and the gas ambient on the structural and optical properties of TiO2 and TiO2:Ag films. The XRD analysis revealed the presence of metallic Ag phase without traces of silver oxides and these results were confirmed by FTIR spectra. It has been revealed that the annealing temperatures and the ambient, where the annealing is carried out is crucial for TiO2 crystallization, when there is Ag incorporation and especially for appearance of anatase and rutile phase. The nitrogen and oxygen ambient influences quite different the crystallization of TiO2:Ag films. Transmission and absorption spectra have been analyzed. Optical band gap values were evaluated for pure titania and Ag incorporated TiO2 films. © 2013 Elsevier B.V. All rights reserved

Preparation and Investigation of Sol–Gel TiO₂-NiO Films: Structural, Optical and Electrochromic Properties

TiO2 and TiO2-NiO films were successfully derived by a sol–gel dip coating technology. The impact of the thermal treatments (300–600 °C) on the structural, optical and electrochromic properties was investigated. X-ray diffraction (XRD) analysis showed that TiO2 films were polycrystalline and evolved in the anatase phase. The composite TiO2-NiO films, treated at annealing temperatures below 500 °C, contained anatase titania, a small inclusion of cubic NiO and an amorphous fraction. The formation of NiTiO3 was exposed after the highest annealing at 600 °C. The presence of Ti-O-Ni bonds was determined in the composite films by Fourier-transform infrared (FTIR) spectroscopy. The optical properties and the optical band gap of TiO2-NiO films were investigated and discussed. The transparency of the electrochromic TiO2-NiO films was 76.8 and 78.3% in the 380–700 nm spectral range after film thermal treatments at 300 and 500 °C. NiO incorporation led to the narrowing of the optical band gap. The electrochromic (EC) properties of the composite films were improved compared to TiO2 films. They had higher diffusion coefficients. Their color efficiencies are 37.6 (550 nm) and 52.2 cm2/C (600 nm)

Deposition of Sol–Gel ZnO:Mg Films and Investigation of Their Structural and Optical Properties

This work presents a facile sol–gel method for the deposition of ZnO and ZnO:Mg films. The films are spin coated on silicon and quartz substrates. The impact of magnesium concentrations (0, 0.5, 1, 2 and 3 wt%) and post-annealing treatments (300–600 °C) on the film’s structural, vibrational and optical properties is investigated. Undoped ZnO films crystallize in the wurtzite phase, with crystallite sizes ranging from 9.1 nm (300 °C) to 29.7 nm (600 °C). Mg doping deteriorates the film crystallization and shifting of 002 peak towards higher diffraction angles is observed, indicating the successful incorporation of Mg into the ZnO matrix. ZnO:Mg films (2 wt%) possess the smallest crystallite size, ranging from 6.2 nm (300 °C) to 25.2 nm (600 °C). The highest Mg concentration (3 wt%) results into a segregation of the MgO phase. Lattice constants, texture coefficients and Zn–O bond lengths are discussed. The diminution of the c lattice parameter is related to the replacement of Zn2+ by Mg2+ in the ZnO host lattice. The vibrational properties are studied by Fourier transform infrared (FTIR) spectroscopy. IR lines related to Mg–O bonds are found for ZnO:Mg films with dopant concentrations of 2 and 3 wt%. The optical characterization showed that the transmittance of ZnO:Mg thin films increased from 74.5% (undoped ZnO) to about 89.1% and the optical band gap energy from 3.24 to 3.56 eV. Mg doping leads to a higher refractive index compared to undoped ZnO films. The FESEM (field emission scanning electron microscopy) technique is used for observation of the surface morphology modification of ZnO:Mg films. The doped ZnO films possess a smoother grained surface structure, opposite to the wrinkle-type morphology of undoped sol–gel ZnO films. The smoother surface leads to improved transparency of ZnO:Mg films

Influence of Fluorine and Nitrogen Co-Doping on the Structural and Morphological Properties of Sol-Gel ZnO Films

The structural, vibrational, optical and morphological properties of ZnO:N:F films, obtained by the sol-gel method, were investigated. The effect of single (fluorine, nitrogen) and F, N co-doping and thermal treatments (300&ndash;600 &deg;C) on the properties of ZnO films was analyzed. X-ray Diffraction (XRD) revealed that ZnO:N:F films crystallized in a polycrystalline wurtzite structure. F and N incorporation changed lattice parameters, crystallite sizes, texture coefficients (TC) and residual stress. TC (002) of ZnO:N:F films increased with annealing, reaching 1.94 at 600 &deg;C lower than the TC (002) of ZnO and ZnO:N films. The shifting of the characteristic absorption bands and/or the appearance of new IR lines were detected for ZnO:N:F samples. The highest transmittance (90.98%) in the visible spectral region was found for ZnO:F films. ZnO:N:F films possessed optical transparency up to 88.18% and their transmittance decreased at the higher annealings. The optical band gap (Eg) values of ZnO:N:F films were changed with fluorine and nitrogen concentrations. The formation of the wrinkle-like structures on the surface of ZnO and ZnO:N films was depicted in Field Emission Scanning Electron Microscopy (FESEM) images. The F, N dual doping modified ZnO morphology and suppressed wrinkle formation

Quadrupole splitting and isomer shifts in Te oxides investigated using nuclear forward scattering

Nuclear forward scattering by 125Te is a viable alternative to conventional 125Te Mössbauer spectroscopy avoiding all source related issues. Using reference compounds with known hyperfine parameters and Te oxides exhibiting stereochemically active lone pairs, we show that nuclear forward scattering by 125Te can be reliably used to extract quadrupole splitting energy and relative isomer shift. The rough correlation between Te-Ocoordination and quadrupole splitting energy as put forward by Takeda and Greenwood (J. Chem. Soc. Dalton, 2207, 1975), is corroborated by the presented results

Preferred Orientation Contribution to the Anisotropic Normal State Resistivity in Superconducting Melt-Cast Processed Bi2Sr2CaCu2O8+delta

International audienceWe describe how the contribution of crystallographic texture to the anisotropy of the resistivity of polycrystalline samples can be estimated by averaging over crystallographic orientations through a geometric mean approach. The calculation takes into account the orientation distribution refined from neutron diffraction data and literature values for the single crystal resistivity tensor. The example discussed here is a melt-cast processed Bi2Sr2CaCu2O8+delta (Bi-2212) polycrystalline tube in which the main texture component is a fiber texture with relatively low texture strength. Experimentally-measured resistivities along the longitudinal, radial, and tangential directions of the Bi-2212 tube were compared to calculated values and found to be of the same order of magnitude. Calculations for this example and additional simulations for various texture strengths and single crystal resistivity anisotropies confirm that in the case of highly anisotropic phases such as Bi-2212, even low texture strengths have a significant effect on the anisotropy of the resistivity in polycrystalline sample

Influence of nonmagnetic cation substitution on magnetic order temperature in Y-type hexaferrites: Ba

With a view to the proven multiferroic properties of the title representatives of the Y-type hexaferrites as single crystals we present here a comparative study of their microstructure and magnetic properties for powders. The polycrystalline materials of Ba0.5Sr1.5Zn2Fe12O22 (S1) and its doped with aluminium derivative Ba0.5Sr1.5Zn2Al0.08Fe11.92O22 (S2) were synthesized by two different techniques: citric-acid sol-gel auto-combustion and sonochemical co-precipitation. Their atomic-level structure determination was checked by X-ray and neutron diffraction, electron diffraction and imaging methods, and their physical characterization was carried out by magnetometry. SEM images show that the microstructure strongly depends on the method of synthesis: non-uniform hexagonal grans are formed in case of auto-combustion whereas particles of nearly perfect hexagonal shape are observed in case of sonochemical co-precipitation. With lowering the temperature to 5 K several magnetic phase transitions were observed, more clearly pronounced in S2 powders. Neutron diffraction data in vicinity and above room temperature help in revealing the effect of magnetic dilution on the observed magnetic properties