Structure and physical properties of layered double perovskite NdBaCo2O5.50+δ (δ≈0.25)

Magnetic, electric, and elastic properties of the crystal and magnetic structure of double layered perovskite NdBaCo2O5.50 + delta are studied by the neutron diffraction method at various temperatures. The data are analyzed using two models of crystal structure. In the first model, the sample consists of two crystal-structure phases with ordered and disordered arrangements of oxygen vacancies. In the second model, a new crystal-structure phase is formed in this compound, which is characterized by ordering of oxygen vacancies in the plane of the rare-earth ion in the 1c crystallographic position (0, 0, 1/2) of space group Pmmm. Two crystal-structure models correspond to different types of magnetic ordering (a mixture of a ferromagnetic phase and a G-type antiferromagnetic phase is presumed in the two-phase crystal-structure model, while a canted antiferromagnetic structure is presumed in the one-phase crystal structure model). The behavior of electric and elastic parameters is better described in the first model, while neutron diffraction studies are in better agreement with the second model.