Spin-State Transition and Metal-Insulator Transition in La$_{1-x}$Eu$_x$CoO$_3$}

TL;DR

This study investigates how chemical pressure from Eu substitution affects spin-state and metal-insulator transitions in La$_{1-x}$Eu$_x$CoO$_3$, revealing that spin transitions are highly sensitive to Eu content while the metal-insulator transition remains relatively unaffected.

Contribution

It provides a detailed analysis of the impact of Eu substitution on spin-state and metal-insulator transitions, highlighting the independence of these phenomena in La$_{1-x}$Eu$_x$CoO$_3$.

Findings

Spin gap increases from 190 K to 2000 K with Eu substitution.

Spin-state transition shifts to higher temperatures with Eu content.

Metal-insulator transition occurs independently of spin-state changes.

Abstract

We present a study of the structure, the electric resistivity, the magnetic susceptibility, and the thermal expansion of La$_{1-x}$Eu$_x$CoO$_3$. LaCoO$_3$ shows a temperature-induced spin-state transition around 100 K and a metal-insulator transition around 500 K. Partial substitution of La$^{3+}$ by the smaller Eu$^{3+}$ causes chemical pressure and leads to a drastic increase of the spin gap from about 190 K in LaCoO$_3$ to about 2000 K in EuCoO$_3$, so that the spin-state transition is shifted to much higher temperatures. A combined analysis of thermal expansion and susceptibility gives evidence that the spin-state transition has to be attributed to a population of an intermediate-spin state with orbital order for $x<0.5$ and without orbital order for larger $x$. In contrast to the spin-state transition, the metal-insulator transition is shifted only moderately to higher temperatures with increasing Eu content, showing that the metal-insulator transition occurs independently from the spin-state distribution of the Co$^{3+}$ ions. Around the metal-insulator transition the magnetic susceptibility shows a similar increase for all $x$ and approaches a doping-independent value around 1000 K indicating that well above the metal-insulator transition the same spin state is approached for all $x$.