Correlation between magnetic phases and insulator-metal transition in La1/3Nd1/3Ca1/3MnO3 perovskite

The La1/3Nd1/3Ca1/3MnO3 ceramic perovskites are investigated using the neutron diffraction technique and resistance measurements in the temperature range from 260 K down to 5 K. We have found that the integrated intensity of the antiferromagnetic peaks was growing with decreasing temperature and reached the maximum at a temperature about 20 K lower than that of the semiconductor-metal transition and did not vanish at 5 K. The semiconductor-metal transition is correlated with the temperature of the maximum of the lattice c-parameter and the percolation of ferromagnetic domains. Our results suggest that although the ferromagnetic long-range order is established through the semiconductor-metal transition induced percolation network, locally the antiferromagnetic correlation can remain.