Magnetic, electrical and structural properties of the new Re-doped ruthenocuprate Ru1-xRexSr2GdCu2Oy

TL;DR

This study synthesizes and characterizes a new Ru1-xRexSr2GdCu2Oy ruthenocuprate family, revealing how doping affects magnetic and structural properties, and providing insights into the interaction between magnetic and superconducting sublattices.

Contribution

It introduces a novel synthesis method for Ru1-xRexSr2GdCu2Oy ruthenocuprates and provides comprehensive structural, magnetic, and transport analyses of these materials.

Findings

Doping with Re alters magnetic transition temperatures.

Structural analysis confirms successful incorporation of Re.

Magnetic and transport properties show interaction between RuO2 and CuO2 layers.

Abstract

Despite the discovery of new superconductors classes, high-Tc oxides continue to be a current topic, because of their complex phase diagrams and doping-dependant effects (allowing one to investigate the interaction between orbitals), as well as structural properties such as lattice distortion and charge ordering, among many others. Ruthenocuprates are magnetic superconductors in which the magnetic transition temperature is much higher than the critical superconducting temperature, making them unique compounds. With the aim of investigating the dilution of the magnetic Ru sub-lattice, we proposed the synthesis of the new Ru1-xRexSr2GdCu2Oy ruthenocupratetype family, adapting the known two-step process (double perovskite + CuO)by directly doping the double perovskite, thus obtaining the new perovskite compound Sr2GdRu1-xRexOy, which represents a new synthesis process to the best of our knowledge. Our samples were structurally characterised through X-ray diffraction, and the patterns were analysed via Rietveld refinement. A complete magnetic characterisation as a function of temperature and applied field, as well as transport measurements were carried out. We discuss our results in the light of the two-lattice model for ruthenocuprates, and a relation between RuO2 (magnetic) and CuO2 (superconductor) sublattices can clearly be observed.