Abstract
Magnetic-field-induced structural phase transitions between the orthorhombic and rhombohedral structures have been investigated for single crystals of perovskite-type manganese oxides, , with finely controlled carrier density (x=0.16–0.18). In x=0.170 crystal, whose composition is tuned so that the structural transition temperature is located close to the Curie temperature , the decreases drastically from 280 K at zero field down to 220 K at 7 T. Such a large magnetostructural effect arises from the mutual coupling among the kinetic energy of doped carriers, the local-spin moment of electrons, and the lattice degree of freedom. We have determined the structural phase diagram in the plane of temperature and magnetic field. For x=0.16 or 0.18 crystals, on the other hand, the ’s that differ considerably from respective ’s have not been changed conspicuously up to 7 T. Thermodynamical aspects of the interesting magnetostructural phenomena are argued in terms of the free energy with coupled order parameters, the magnetization M, and the lattice distortion Q. © 1996 The American Physical Society.
- Received 2 February 1996
DOI:https://doi.org/10.1103/PhysRevB.54.1716
©1996 American Physical Society