Electrical, magnetic and magnetocaloric properties of polycrystalline Pr0.63A0.07Sr0.3MnO3 (A=Pr, Sm and Bi)

• Pr0.63A0.07Sr0.3MnO3 (A= Pr, Sm and Bi) manganites exhibit important magnetic properties.
• Sm and Bi based sample are characterized by phase separation phenomenon.
• Huge magnetocaloric effect was recorded for the sample Pr0.7Sr0.3MnO3.

We studied the effects of the partial substitution (10%) of praseodymium by samarium and bismuth, on the structural, magnetic, magnetocaloric and electrical properties of the Pr0.63A0.07Sr0.3MnO3 (A=Pr, Sm and Bi) manganites prepared using the solid state reaction. Refinement of the X-ray diffraction patterns shows that all our samples are single phase and crystallize in the orthorhombic structure with Pnma space group. Magnetic studies indicate that all the samples exhibit a ferromagnetic–paramagnetic transition with increasing temperature. Curie temperature TC decreases by substitution. M(H) curves indicate the presence of some antiferromagnetic domains in the substituted samples testifying the phase-separated nature of these samples. The magnetic entropy curves –ΔS(T) show a maximum in vicinity of TC. Important values of maximum of −ΔS are recorded for our compounds. For the parent compound, we found 4.59 J/kg K for an applied magnetic field of 2 T at TC=266 K which raises the possibility of using this compound as a magnetic refrigerant. The temperature dependence of the electrical resistivity ρ(T) indicates that all compounds exhibit a metal-insulator transition with increasing temperature. Electrical study suggests the presence of a correlation between electrical and magnetic properties.