The nature of the charge-ordered state in with a very small average radius of the A-site cations

Abstract

A detailed investigation of with a very small radius of the A-site cations reveals the occurrence of a charge-ordering transition in the paramagnetic state, at a relatively high temperature of 260 K. The orthorhombic lattice distortion, as measured by the dimensionless index D, is large over the entire 300-100 K range, but the antiferromagnetic interactions become prominent only at low temperatures (< 160 K). The charge-ordering gap in , measured by low-temperature vacuum tunnelling spectroscopy, is large and the charge-ordered state is unaffected by the application of a magnetic field of 6 T. The study indicates that the nature of charge-ordering in which is dominated by the cooperative Jahn-Teller effect and the associated lattice distortion is distinctly different from analogous manganates with larger .