Magnetically tunable alternating current electrical properties of (100-x)% La0.7Sr0.3MnO3 - x% paraffin wax(0.05≤x≤1.0) hybrid nanocomposites

Abstract We have investigated magnetically tunable AC electrical properties of (100-x)% La 0.7 Sr 0.3 MnO 3 (LSMO) - x% Paraffin wax (weight%, x = 0.05, 0.1, 0.2 and 1.0) hybrid nanocomposites prepared through a chemical pyrophoric reaction technique at room temperature. The electric field applied across the composites is at perpendicular direction with applied magnetic field(H). The impedance(Z) of the samples is found to decrease with increase in H at low frequency regime indicating the presence of field dependent electrical relaxation process in the system. The decrement of Z with applied H is supposed to be due to gradual depinning of magnetic domain walls from the grain boundary pinning centres thereby enhancing the spin dependent transport in the composites. Nyquist plots have been fitted using parallel combinations of both grain and grain boundaries resistance and capacitance. The grain (grain boundary) resonance frequency f RG (f RGB ) is observed to shift towards lower (higher) frequency region with H. This opposite variation of f RG and f RGB with H reveals evidence of two competing factors namely H induced enhancement of inductive part and H enhanced spin dependent transport causing fast relaxation processes in the system. Both f RG and f RGB are found to increase with Paraffin wax concentration upto 0.1% and 0.2% respectively. But both of them show a decreasing trend with further increase of Paraffin wax concentration to 1.0%. We have attributed this anomalous variation to multiple factors like increase in thickness of spin polarized Paraffin wax tunnel barrier with Paraffin wax and enhancement of Mn 2 O 3 impurity phase in nanocomposites with 0.1% and 0.2% Paraffin wax concentration. Systematic decrease of R G observed with H is attributed to suppression of spin fluctuation by magnetic field within grains whereas observed increase in C G with H is expected due to some magnetocapacitive coupling in the grain of the samples. Systematic decrease of R GB observed with H is attributed to depinning of GB domain walls with H, from GB pinning wells whereas observed increase in C GB with H is expected due to presence of inhomogeneous Paraffin wax interface in the samples.