Thermally induced variable-range-hopping crossover and ferromagnetism in the layered cobalt oxide Sr2Y0.5Ca0.5Co2O7 -: art. no. 064401

Temperature-dependent transport and magnetic measurements on Sr2Y0.5Ca0.5Co2O7 indicate that ferromagnetism appears along with a crossover between two forms of variable-range-hopping (VRH) conductivity on cooling. Efros-Shklovskii (ES)-type VRH conduction was found below approximately 30 K, transformed from Mott-type VRH at higher temperature. The magnitude of the Coulomb gap and the Mott-ES VRH crossover temperature ore similar to 57 K and similar to 170 K, respectively. These are unusually large compared to those of nonmagnetic disordered materials. The peculiar electronic state for the ferromagnetic Coulomb gap is probably due to Coulomb correlations among d electrons in the disordered system.