Devitrification of a glass-like arrested ferromagnetic phase in La0.5Ca0.5MnO3

TL;DR

This study investigates how a glass-like ferromagnetic phase in La0.5Ca0.5MnO3 can be transformed into an equilibrium antiferromagnetic-insulating phase through annealing, revealing insights into phase coexistence and kinetic arrest.

Contribution

It demonstrates the controlled devitrification of a kinetically arrested ferromagnetic phase in La0.5Ca0.5MnO3 using resistivity measurements and annealing techniques.

Findings

Residual ferromagnetic-metallic phase can be converted to antiferromagnetic-insulating phase.

Higher cooling fields increase the fraction of glassy ferromagnetic phase.

Annealing at higher temperatures promotes heterogeneous nucleation of the equilibrium phase.

Abstract

Magnetization measurements in La0.5Ca0.5MnO3 manganite show that the high-temperature long-range ferromagnetic-metallic phase transforms to antiferromagnetic-insulating phase, although a fraction of ferromagnetic-metallic phase undergoes glass-like kinetic arrest and coexists at low temperature with the equilibrium antiferromagnetic-insulating phase. We show here through resistivity measurements that the residual arrested ferromagnetic-metallic fraction can be converted to the equilibrium antiferromagnetic-insulating phase by successive annealing at higher temperatures, possibly through heterogeneous nucleation of equilibrium phase. Significantly, larger fractions of this glassy ferromagnetic-metallic phase can be obtained by cooling in higher fields and larger conversion to equilibrium antiferromagnetic-insulating phase results.