Magnetization and specific heat of LaTiO3 -: art. no. 212405

The orbital ground state of LaTiO3 is still under debate. Recent letters [Phys. Rev. Lett. 85, 3950 (2000); 85, 3946 (2000)] discussed a scenario of an orbital liquid, and provided theoretical predictions about orbital contributions to the specific heat. Here we present the results of heat capacity and magnetic measurements. Based on model calculations we determine an electronic ground state which gives g values compatible with the experimentally observed ordered moment and the paramagnetic susceptibility. The heat capacity of LaTiO3 is compared with that of orbitally ordered LaMnO3. We conclude that most of the low-temperature heat capacity arises from magnon contributions in both LaMnO3 and LaTiO3.