Influence of preparation method on SrMoO4 impurity content and magnetotransport properties of double perovskite Sr2FeMoO6 polycrystals

The magnetic and electric properties of the Sr2FeMoO6 compound produced under different preparation conditions were studied. Depending on the preparation condition, a strong variation in the nonmagnetic SrMoO4 impurity content was found, which in turn determined the metallic or semiconducting behavior of the resistivity of the Sr2FeMoO6 compound. There was also evidence that SrMoO4 played a crucial role in modifying the low magnetic field intergrain tunneling magnetoresistance in Sr2FeMoO6. In addition, we have established a simple method to prepare the single phase Sr2FeMoO6 polycrystals. (C) 2003 Elsevier Ltd. All rights reserved.