Structural, magnetic and electrical properties of Fe-doped perovskite manganites La0.8Ca0.15Na0.05Mn1−xFexO3 (x = 0, 0.05, 0.10 and 0.15)

Here, we report the structural, magnetic and electrical properties of new series of Fe-doped perovskite manganites La0.8Ca0.15Na0.05Mn1-xFexO3. Rietveld analysis of powder X-ray diffraction data revealed that all the compounds crystallize in the orthorhombic symmetry with Pnma space group. The lattice parameters and the unit cell volume increases slightly with Fe-doping. Temperature dependent magnetization studies showed that all our investigated compounds exhibit a paramagnetic-ferromagnetic transition with Curie temperature (TC) decreases with increasing x from 253 K to 130 K. All the phases show metal-insulator transition and the values of metal-insulator transition temperature (TMI) are nearly approachable to TC, reflecting strong correlations between the magnetic and electrical properties in our samples. The transport properties are dominated by the Polaron hopping mechanism in temperature range above TMI with increase in polaron hopping energy with Fe content.