| In cobalt oxides, the energy splitting between different spin-states of Co3+ ions can be quite small, which means that more than one spin-state can simultaneously co-exist in the same compound and that transitions between different spin-state can occur. This makes understanding the magnetic coupling between cobalt sites rather complex. Such is the case for pure and hole-doped LaCoO3. In its ground state, LaCoO3 is a non-magnetic insulator. The lack of a magnetic moment, is due to the fact that the ground spin-state of Co3+ ions is a low-spin, S=0, state. However, since a spin-state that has a net spin is on the order of 100 K higher in energy than the ground spin-state, a magnetic moment appears as the temperature is increased, and the system behaves as a paramagnet above 100 K. The higher-energy spin-state is either an intermediate-spin (S=1) state of a high-spin (S=2) state - an issue that has been debated for quite some time. When holes are chemically doped into the system, as in La1- xSrxCoO3 (LSCO), the non-magnetic, insulating ground state evolves into a ferromagnetic, metallic state. This evolution is complicated because it occurs due to the convoluted effects of Co4+ ions being doped into the system and the fact that the ground spin-state of Co3+ ions changes as a function of the hole concentration.; In this dissertation, the magnetic transitions in pure and hole-doped LaCoO3 are investigated by neutron scattering techniques. In the pure compound, it is shown that thermally excited spins have both fluctuating ferromagnetic and antiferro-magnetic spin-correlations, which is suggested to result from a dynamic orbital ordering of the occupied e. g orbitals of the intermediate-spin state. It is also shown that the thermally excited spin-state is split in energy by 0.6 meV. In the hole-doped compound, LSCO, it is shown that the evolution into a metallic ferromagnet occurs by the percolation of isotropic ferromagnetic droplets. It is also shown that incommensurate spin-correlations co-exist and compete with ferromagnetic spin correlations in LSCO, and it is argued that this competition is manifested in the thermodynamic properties. The role of the lattice upon the magnetic transitions in the hole-doped compounds is addressed by simultaneous analysis of magnetic Bragg peaks, the local atomic structure, and the average crystal structure from powder neutron diffraction patterns of La1- xCaxCoO3 and La 1-xBaxCoO3. It is suggested that the fraction of ions with intermediate spin-states at a fixed hole concentration depends on the radius of the A-site dopant. |
