Study of structure and magnetic properties of the perovskite Tb0.5Sr0.5CoO3

The perovskite compound Tb0.5Sr0.5CoO3 has been prepared and studied for the first time. We report here the structural and magnetic properties of the compound using the DC magnetization and powder neutron diffraction techniques. The compound is found to be orthorhombic with Pbnm space group. The magnetic ground state of the system is ferromagnetic with Tc = 120 K. The ordered magnetic moment is found to be 1.57 (4) μB/Co ion at 12 K along the crystallographic b-axis. The observed effective paramagnetic moment μeff = 2.54 μB/f.u. The role of ionic size effect on the magnetic and transport properties of the compound through the variation of CoOCo bond angles is highlighted.