Impact of Crystallite Size on Structural, Optical and Magnetic Characteristics of La0.7Sr0.15Ca0.15MnO3 Nanocrystalline

Abstract

Nanocrystalline La0.7Sr0.15Ca0.15MnO3 (LSCMO) manganites were prepared by the combustion process and heated to various annealing temperatures (TA) to get various sized crystallites. The X-ray diffraction (XRD) patterns provided evidence that a Rhombohedral structure with space group  was formed. Additionally, an increase in the size of the crystallites was observed, from 15.64 to 36.78nm, as the temperature (TA) increased from 700℃ to 1300℃. The FESEM micrographs revealed that homogeneous with porosity. The FTIR spectra showed five absorption peaks. The Optical energy gap of LSCMO nanocrystalline is decreased from 3.51 to 3.28 eV as annealed temperature raised, reveals that the LSCMO nanoparticles are semiconductor in nature. Room temperature Raman spectra of LSCMO nanoparticles demonstrate a notable reliance on annealing temperature. When the Raman modes were analysed with respect to TA, it was observed that the Raman vibrational phonon mode below 200cm-1 (A1g) and four modes (Eg) in the range 200-800cm-1 displayed significant displacements and widening, which were associated with oxygen sublattice distortion. Considerable changes were observed in both the intensity and full width half maximum (FWHM) of the five Raman modes as the annealing temperature increased. Magnetic behaviour using M-H loop at room temperature were measured by the Vibrating sample magnetometer revealed that gradation of saturation magnetization as the function of annealing temperature. Hence there is a remarkable crystallite size effect on optical and magnetic properties of LSCMO nanocrystallites.