Structural and magnetic properties of nanoparticles of La2/3Sr1/3MnO3

Abstract

Nanoparticles of the manganite were synthesized using the Pechini process and their structural properties were characterized by X-ray diffraction (XRD) and by transmission electron microscopy (TEM). The magnetization of compacted powders was measured for temperatures in the range . The estimated average diameter (D) of the particles continuously increased from 20 to 95 nm when the calcination temperature was varied from 873 to 1273 K. From the magnetic data we found that the room temperature saturation magnetization scaled with while the magnetic transition temperature follows a power-law suggesting that the correlation length is mainly determined by the surface properties of the nanoparticles.