Structural and magnetic studies of Sr1.5Pr0.5CoO4

We present the systematic study of structural and magnetic properties of single phase polycrystalline Sr1.5Pr0.5CoO4. Rietveld refinement of XRD data shows the decrease of unit cell volume and enhanced distortion of CoO6 octahedra with Pr substitution. DC as well as AC magnetization measurements show the history dependent metastable magnetic phase around 136 K and from Arrott plots the Tc is found to be at 145 K. A Magnetic hump is observed around 179 K in low field AC susceptibility measurement that can be ascribed to spin state transition.