Direct Measurement of the Low-Temperature Spin-State Transition in LaCoO3

R. F. Klie, J. C. Zheng, Y. Zhu, M. Varela, J. Wu, and C. Leighton
Phys. Rev. Lett. 99, 047203 – Published 25 July 2007

Abstract

LaCoO3 exhibits an anomaly in its magnetic susceptibility around 80 K associated with a thermally excited transition of the Co3+-ion spin. We show that electron energy-loss spectroscopy is sensitive to this Co3+-ion spin-state transition, and that the O K edge prepeak provides a direct measure of the Co3+ spin state in LaCoO3 as a function of temperature. Our experimental results are confirmed by first-principles calculations, and we conclude that the thermally excited spin-state transition occurs from a low to an intermediate spin state, which can be distinguished from the high-spin state.

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  • Received 13 December 2006

DOI:https://doi.org/10.1103/PhysRevLett.99.047203

©2007 American Physical Society

Authors & Affiliations

R. F. Klie

  • Department of Physics, University of Illinois at Chicago, Chicago, Illinois 60657, USA

J. C. Zheng and Y. Zhu

  • Institute for Advanced Electron Microscopy, Brookhaven National Laboratory, Upton, New York 11973, USA

M. Varela

  • Materials Science & Technology Division, Oak Ridge National Laboratory, Oak Ridge, Tennessee 37830, USA

J. Wu and C. Leighton

  • Department of Chemical Engineering and Materials Science, University of Minnesota, Minneapolis, Minnesota 55455, USA

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Vol. 99, Iss. 4 — 27 July 2007

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