Electronic, structural and magnetic phase diagram of Sm1-xSrxMnO3 manganites

The electronic, structural and magnetic phase diagram of the colossal magnetoresistive Sm1-xSrxMnO3 (0.16 <= x <= 0.67) manganites is constructed on the basis of their systematic studies by high-resolution neutron powder diffraction. It is shown the tendency of researched system to formation of the phase-separated states on crystallographic as well as, in the even greater extent, on magnetic level. A clear correlation between fine specific features and temperature evolution of crystal structures, spin ordering of the manganese ions, and the physical properties of the samarium-strontium series of manganites obtained from temperature magnetic and transport measurements is demonstrated. It was found that ground state of Sm-Sr manganites shows very various physical properties depending first of all on the doping level x and, forgiven x, determined by two distortion parameters, namely, the average A-cation size <r(A)> and the local A-cation size mismatch sigma(2). (C) 2009 Elsevier B.V. All rights reserved.