Ferromagnetic insulating phase in Pr1-xCaxMnO3 -: art. no. 054433

A ferromagnetic insulating (FM-I) state in Pr0.75Ca0.25MnO3 has been studied by neutron scattering experiment and theoretical calculation. The insulating behavior is robust against an external magnetic field, and is ascribed to neither the phase separation between a ferromagnetic metallic (FM-M) phase and a nonferromagnetic insulating one, nor the charge ordering. We found that the Jahn-Teller type lattice distortion is much weaker than PrMnO3 and the magnetic interaction is almost isotropic. These features resemble the ferromagnetic metallic state of manganites, but the spin exchange interaction J is much reduced compared to the FM-M state. The theoretical calculation based on the staggered type orbital order well reproduces several features of the spin and orbital state in the FM-I phase.