Evidence for canted antiferromagnetism in lightly doped La1-xSrxMnO3

Abstract

We present magnetization measurements on lightly doped ${\mathrm{La}}_{1\ensuremath{-}x}{\mathrm{Sr}}_{x}{\mathrm{MnO}}_{3}$ single crystals with $0.06<~x<~0.15$ in external fields up to 14 T at temperatures between 4.2 and 180 K. In contrast to the ferromagnetic behavior which is found for $x>~0.11,$ the samples with $x=0.06$ and $x=0.09$ exhibit a pronounced hysteresis and a constant high-field susceptibility. By analyzing this particular behavior we can rule out a phase separation into ferromagnetic and antiferromagnetic regions. On the other hand, a model of a canted antiferromagnet can account for the main experimental features.