Abstract
High-pressure x-ray powder diffraction has been measured on the half doped rare earth manganite up to a pressure of 15 GPa. We report the presence of a quantifiable amount of shear distortion of the octahedra in at high pressures. The lattice strain of is minimal at a crossover pressure of , with the same lattice strain above and below this pressure achieved by shear and Jahn-Teller–type distortions, respectively. The increase in shear strain with increasing pressure provides a mechanism for the insulating behavior of manganites at high pressures that has not been considered before.
- Received 26 October 2004
DOI:https://doi.org/10.1103/PhysRevLett.94.165504
©2005 American Physical Society