Effect of Quench Treatment on Fe/Mo Order and Magnetic Properties of Double Perovskite Sr_2FeMoO_6

A quench-treatment technique is used to prepare a high-quality polycrystalline sample of double perovskite Sr_2FeMoO_6 (SFMO). X-ray powder diffraction analysis reveals that the sample has a single phase and exhibits I4/m symmetry. The cation order \eta of the sample increases to 98.9(2)% from 94.2(3)%, which is prepared by the traditional sol-gel method. The initial magnetization isotherm of the sample is detected at 300 K. Unit-cell magnetization for the current sample is 1.332 \mu_\rm B at 300 K, and the one for the traditional sol-gel method sample is 0.946 \mu_\rm B. Unit-cell magnetization is enhanced to 40.80% by the quench-treatment technique. Quench treatment is an effective method of enhancing the Fe/Mo order and magnetic properties of double perovskite SFMO.