Magnetism in quasi-two-dimensional tri-layer La2.1Sr1.9Mn3O10 manganite

The tri-layer La 3 - 3 x Sr 1 + 3 x Mn 3 O 10 manganites of Ruddlesden–Popper (RP) series are naturally arranged layered structure with alternate stacking of ω-MnO 2 (ω = 3) planes and rock-salt type block layers (La, Sr) 2 O 2 along c-axis. The dimensionality of the RP series manganites depends on the number of perovskite layers and significantly affects the magnetic and transport properties of the system. Generally, when a ferromagnetic material undergoes a magnetic phase transition from ferromagnetic to paramagnetic state, the magnetic moment of the system becomes zero above the transition temperature (T C ). However, the tri-layer La 2.1 Sr 1.9 Mn 3 O 10 shows non-zero magnetic moment above T C and also another transition at higher temperature T ∗ ≈ 263 K. The non-zero magnetization above T C emphasizes that the phase transition in tri-layer La 2.1 Sr 1.9 Mn 3 O 10 not a ferromagnetic to paramagnetic state. We show here the non-zero magnetic moment above T C is due to the quasi-two-dimensional nature of the tri-layer La 2.1 Sr 1.9 Mn 3 O 10 manganite. The scaling of the magnetic entropy change confirms the second-order phase transition and the critical behavior of phase transition has been studied around T C to understand the low dimensional magnetism in tri-layer La 2.1 Sr 1.9 Mn 3 O 10 . We have obtained the critical exponents for tri-layer La 2.1 Sr 1.9 Mn 3 O 10 , which belong to the short-range two-dimensional (2D)-Ising universality class. The low dimensional magnetism in tri-layer La 2.1 Sr 1.9 Mn 3 O 10 manganite is also explained with the help of renormalization group theoretical approach for short-range 2D-Ising systems. It has been shown that the layered structure of tri-layer La 2.1 Sr 1.9 Mn 3 O 10 results in three different types of interactions intra-planer ( J ab ), intra-tri-layer ( J c ) and inter-tri-layer ( J ′ ) such that J ab > J c > > J ′ and competition among these give rise to the canted antiferromagnetic spin structure above T C . Based on the similar magnetic interaction in bi-layer manganite, we propose that the tri-layer La 2.1 Sr 1.9 Mn 3 O 10 should be able to host the skyrmion below T C due to its strong anisotropy and layered structure.