Magnetic contributions to the low-temperature specific heat of the ferromagnetic insulator Pr0.8Ca0.2MnO3

The Pr1-x CaxMnO3 system exhibits a ferromagnetic insulating state for the composition range x less than or equal to 0.25. A metallic ferromagnetic state is never realized because of the low hole concentration and the very small averaged A-site cation radius. In the present study, the nature of the magnetic excitations at low temperature has been investigated by specific heat measurements on a Pr0.8Ca0.2MnO3 single crystal. The decrease of the specific heat under magnetic field is qualitatively consistent with a suppression of ferromagnetic spin waves in a magnetic field. However, at low temperature, the qualitative agreement with the ferromagnetic spin waves picture is poor. It appears that the large reduction of the specific heat due to the spin waves is compensated by a Schottky-like contribution possibly arising from a Zeeman splitting of the ground state multiplet of the Pr3+ ions.