Electron-spin-resonance of Gd3+ ions in Y1-xGdxBaCo2O5 (x = 0.01, 0.25, and 1).

While charge-ordering transition is well established in the oxygen-deficient layered cobaltite YBaCo2O5, there has been no evidence for the transition in the analogous compound GdBaCo2O5 either from neutron diffraction or from magnetic susceptibility experiments. In this paper, we present comparative studies on the electron spin resonance (ESR) of Gd3+ ions in Y1-xGdxBaCo2O5 (x = 0.01, 0.25, and 1) polycrystalline samples. Magnetic susceptibility was also performed for comparison with the ESR results. It was found that charge-ordering transition for Y0.75Gd0.25BaCo2O5 revealed by the susceptibility is also manifested in the characters of the ESR data. The similar temperature-evolution of the ESR parameters for GdBaCo2O5 provides a support for the existence of charge-ordering transition, although no characteristic of the transition is evidenced from susceptibility experiments, which can be understood as being hidden by dominant paramagnetism of Gd3+ ions in this compound. We have interpreted the temperature variation of ESR parameters in terms of electron localization associated with Co2+/Co3+ charge ordering. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]