Spin-glass-like dynamics of ferromagnetic clusters in La(0.75)Ba(0.25)CoO3

We report a magnetization study of the compound La0.75Ba0.25CoO3 where the Ba(2+) doping is just above the critical limit for percolation of ferromagnetic clusters. The field cooled and zero-field cooled (ZFC) magnetization exhibit thermomagnetic irreversibility and the ac susceptibility shows a frequency dependent peak at the ferromagnetic ordering temperature (TC ≈ 203 K) of the clusters. These features indicate the presence of a non-equilibrium state below TC. For the non-equilibrium state, the dynamic scaling of the imaginary part of the ac susceptibility and the static scaling of the nonlinear susceptibility clearly establish a spin-glass-like cooperative freezing of ferromagnetic clusters at 200.9(2) K. The assertion of the occurrence of spin-glass-like freezing of ferromagnetic clusters is further substantiated by ZFC ageing and memory experiments. We also observe certain dynamical features which are not present in a typical spin glass, such as: the initial magnetization after ZFC ageing first increases and then decreases with the waiting time; and there is an imperfect recovery of relaxation in negative temperature cycling experiments. This imperfect recovery transforms to perfect recovery for concurrent field cycling. Our analysis suggests that these additional dynamical features have their origin in the inter-cluster exchange interaction and cluster size distribution. The inter-cluster exchange interaction above the magnetic percolation level gives a superferromagnetic state in some granular thin films, but our results show the absence of a typical superferromagnetic-like state in La0.75Ba0.25CoO3.