Effects of La, Nd and Sm substitution of Sr in Sr2CrReO6 on the structural, magnetic and transport properties

A detailed study of Strontium substitution (up to 25% at most) with Lanthanide (La, Nd and Sm) in the Sr2CrReO6 double perovskite has been carried out by means of neutron powder diffraction (NPD), scanning electron microscopy (SEM), low magnetic field and high pulsed magnetic field magnetometry as well as transport measurements. In the present manuscript we will focus on the consequences of such substitution on structural, electronic and magnetic properties. The presented results show the lack of expected enhancement of the Curie temperature by the Lanthanide addition. This puts doubts on the possibility of electron doping in the Sr2CrReO6 system via the standard solid-state reaction growth techniques with rare-earth doping, commonly used for other double perovskite compounds.Financial support by EuroMagNET (under the EU contract RII3-CT- 2004-506239 of the 6th Framework Structuring the European Research Area, Research Infrastructures Action), as well as the Spanish Ministry of Science (through projects FIS08-03951, MAT2005-04562 and MAT2008-06567-C02 including FEDER funding) and the Polish Ministry of Science and Higher Education is also acknowledged.Peer Reviewe