Electron magnetic resonance studies of nanomanganite Nd0.67Sr0.33MnO3

Nd_0.67Sr_0.33MnO_3 nanoparticles with the grain size of about 30 nm are prepared by sol-gel method.These nanopowders are annealed at four different temperatures viz. 800 oC, 900 oC, 1000 oC and 1100 oC to study the effect of particle size on magnetic, transport and electron magnetic resonance (EMR) spectral parameters. The samples are characterized by XRD, SEM, EDAX and TEM. The ac susceptibility experiments show that as the particle size increases the ferromagnetic to paramagnetic transition temperature (Tc) decreases. The metal-insulator transition temperature also changes with the particle size as revealed by resistivity measurements. EMR spectra of the nanopowders are recorded from room temperature down to 4K using an X-band EPR spectrometer. the spectra could be fitted using two broad-Gaussian lineshapes below Tc and suggested the ferromagnetic nature of the samples. Above Tc a single Lorenzian fits the signals as expetced for paramagnetic samples. The EMR spectral parameters are found to be different from the bulk (polycrystalline)sample data. The spectral parameters show variation with the particle size. The presence of the two signals in the ferromagnetic phase is attributed to core and shell regions in the nanoparticles. We could estimate the shell thickness from the EMR intensity data as 0.7 - 1 nm which agrees with other measurements.