Eur. Phys. J. B 14, 431-438 (2000)
https://doi.org/10.1007/s100510051051

Jahn-Teller distortion and magnetoresistance in electron doped Sr_1-xCe_xMnO₃ (x = 0.1, 0.2, 0.3 and 0.4)

¹ LEPES-CNRS, B.P. 166, 38042 Grenoble Cedex 09, France
² Laboratoire CRISMAT, ISMRA, 6 bd du Maréchal Juin, 14050 Caen, France
³ Institut Laue-Langevin, 38000 Grenoble, France

Received: 10 September 1999
Published online: 15 April 2000

Abstract

Neutron and electron diffraction, electrical transport and magnetic measurements have been carried out on a newly synthesized electron doped Sr_1-xCe_xMnO₃ (x = 0.1, 0.2, 0.3 and 0.4) system. For x=0.1, while cooling, it undergoes a first-order metal-insulator transition at 315 K which is associated with a structural transition from cubic (Pm3m) to tetragonal (I4/mcm) due to Jahn-Teller ordering () which stabilizes a chain like (C-type) antiferromagnetic ground state with . The antiferromagnetic insulator state is insensitive to an applied magnetic field of 7 T. With increase of x, while the nuclear structure at room temperature for x=0.2 and 0.3 remains tetragonal, for x=0.4 it becomes orthorhombic (Imma) where the doping electrons seem to occupy mainly the symmetry. Further, the JT distortion and the antiferromagnetic interactions decrease with doping and a small negative magnetoresistance appears for . Magnetic measurements show that the dilution of antiferromagnetic interaction results into a spin glass like behaviour at low temperature for the samples with x=0.3 and 0.4. This behaviour is in contrast with the CMR properties of calcium based electron doped systems and hole doped manganites. The stability of C-type antiferromagnetic ordering in the electron doped system with large A-site cationic size may be responsible for the absence of double exchange ferromagnetism and CMR effect.