Sharp metamagnetic and correlated electronic transitions in manganites: A systematic effect of cation disorder

Abstract

We have studied a series of Nd0.5Ca0.5-xBa xMnO3 (x = 0.02, 0.03, 0.05 and 0.10) manganites to explore the effects of A-site cation disorder on antiferromagnetic charge-ordered state at low temperatures. Sharp and multiple metamagnetic transitions are observed in these manganites, which are found to be correlated to sharp resistivity drops at low temperatures. In spite of no significant change in average cation radius at A-site, isovalent substitution of Ba at Casite caused considerably large effects on the charge-ordering and the metamagnetic transitions. Here, we report some systematic trends of features evolving from metamagnetic transitions, as a function of increasing cation disorder. © 2012 American Institute of Physics.