“…Rare-earth (RE) cobaltates with provskite structure of the general composition of the type RECoO 3 and hole-doped RE 1Àx A x CoO 3 as well as their half-doped RE 0.5 A 0.5 CoO 3 (where RE is a trivalent rare-earth ion such as La, Nd, Dy, and Gd, and A is a divalent alkaline-earth ion such as Sr, Ca or Ba) have been given fair attention in a recent years due to their unique magnetic and transport properties as well as the potential application [1][2][3][4][5][6]. In addition to the lattice, charge and spin degrees of freedom which are found in many other transition metal oxides, the cobaltates also display interesting features originating from the 'spin state' at Co-site [7,8].…”