Structural, electronic and magnetic properties of La1.5Ca0.5(Co0.5Fe0.5)IrO6 double perovskite

In this work, we report the synthesis and investigation of structural, electronic, and magnetic properties of La1.5Ca0.5(Co0.5Fe0.5)IrO6. Our polycrystalline sample forms as a single-phase double perovskite in monoclinic P21/n space group. Co and Ir are most likely in bivalent and tetravalent oxidation states, respectively, while Mössbauer spectroscopy indicates that Fe is in a trivalent state. The ac and dc magnetization data suggest a ferrimagnetic behavior resulting from the presence of two antiferromagnetic sublattices at Co/Fe and Ir sites. The large coercive field HC ≃ 32 kOe observed at 10 K, comparable to that of other double perovskites of interest for hard magnets, is discussed in terms of the structural distortion and the spin and orbital magnetic moments of the transition metal ions.