Basal plane ferromagnetism in the rhombohedral manganite La0.85Ag0.15MnO3+?

The structural and magnetic properties of silver-doped lanthanum manganite, La0.85Ag0.15MnO3+?,?=0.10(2), have been studied using magnetometry and high-resolution neutron powder diffraction. The structural space group is found to be predominantly R3¯c, with a minor (5%) fraction of Pnma phase. This phase fraction does not change in the measured temperature range of 4 K to 300 K. Our high-resolution diffraction data allow a detailed analysis of the spin orientation. Using representational analysis, we find the ferromagnetic state below Tc=246 K has spins oriented perpendicular to the rhombohedral c-axis and is purely ferromagnetic i.e. no canting between sublattices is observed. Implications for the magnetocaloric effect are discussed. © 2019 Elsevier B.V.Çukurova ÜniversitesiWe gratefully acknowledge the Science and Technology Facilities Council (STFC) for access to neutron beamtime allocation at the ISIS pulsed Neutron and Muon Source. This work was partially supported by the Çukurova University under project No. FEF2010D11. Appendix