Comparative study of heterogeneous magnetic state above TC in La0.82Sr0.18CoO3 cobaltite and La0.83Sr0.17MnO3 manganite

The magnetic, transport and structural properties are studied for La0.83Sr0.17MnO3 and La0.82Sr0.18CoO3 single crystals with nearly the same doping and the metallic ground state. Their comparisons have shown that ferromagnetic clusters originate in the paramagnetic matrix below Т⁎>TC in both samples and exhibit similar properties. This suggests the possible universality of such phenomena in doped mixed-valence oxides of transition metals with the perovskite-type structure. The cluster density increases on cooling and plays an important role on the physical properties of these systems. The differences in cluster evolutions and scenarios of their insulator-metal transitions are related to different magnetic behaviors of the matrixes in these crystals that is mainly due to distinct spin states of the Mn3+ and Co3+ ions.