Antiferromagnetic Order and Phase Coexistence in Antisite Disordered Double Perovskites

Abstract

In addition to the well known ferromagnetism, double perovskites are also expected to exhibit antiferromagnetic (AF) order driven by electron delocalisation. This has been seen in model Hamiltonian studies and confirmed via ab initio calculations. The AF phases should occur, for example, on sufficient electron doping of materials like Sr_2FeMoO_6 (SFMO) via La substitution for Sr. Clear experimental indication of such AF order is limited, possibly because of increase in antisite disorder with La doping on SFMO, although intriguing signatures of non ferromagnetic behaviour are seen. We study the survival of electronically driven antiferromagnetism in the presence of spatially correlated antisite disorder and extract the signals in magnetism and transport. We discover that A and G type AF order, that is predicted in the clean limit, is actually suppressed less strongly than ferromagnetism by antisite disorder. The AF phases are metallic, and, remarkably, more conducting that the ferromagnet for similar antisite disorder. We also highlight the phase coexistence window that connects the ferromagnetic regime to the A type antiferromagnetic phase.