Temperature dependent negative permittivity in solid solutions Sr2Mn1-xSnxO4 (x=0, 0.3, 0.5)

A few compositions of the system Sr2Mn1-xSnxO4 (x = 0.0, 0.3, 0.5) were synthesized in the air by the solid-state ceramic route. A change in the sign (positive to negative) of the permittivity above a particular temperature (TC) is observed at all the measured frequencies. The negative permittivity was analyzed by the Drude-Lorentz model. It was found that negative permittivity is caused by the plasma oscillations of thermally excited free charge carriers. Analysis of XPS spectra confirmed the presence of mixed-valence states of both Mn (Mn4+ and Mn3+) and Sn (Sn4+ and Sn2+) ions. The UV-vis.-IR spectroscopy results indicated generation of a large number of defect states in the forbidden bandgap region of Sr2MnO4 on the substitution of Sn at Mn site. Synthesized samples are promising metamaterials for radio frequency (10 Hz-2 MHz) region applications due to the high -temperature plasmonic behavior.