Magnetic properties of lanthanum manganite and valence equilibria of manganese

Abstract The paramagnetic susceptibility of lanthanum manganite has been measured over a wide temperature range (100–1073 K). On the basis of the thermodynamic equilibria between the various manganese ions with different valence and spin states and the magnetic interactions between the various manganese ions, a semiempirical formula has been proposed to calculate the paramagnetic susceptibilities of lanthanum manganite at different temperatures. The results indicate that most of the discrepancies between the calculated and experimental reciprocal susceptibilities of lanthanum manganite are less than 10% and that the relative contents of the various manganese ions in lanthanum manganite vary with temperature. The relative content of the trivalent manganese ion with a high spin state is dominant over the whole temperature range, while the relative content of the tetravalent manganese ion with a high spin state decreases monotonously with increasing temperature. At 300 K the calculated relative content of the tetravalent manganese ion in lanthanum manganite is about 34%, which is in good agreement with the experimental result (30%). There are some divalent manganese ions present in lanthanum manganite from low temperature to high temperature. The ratio of the relative contents of the tetravalent and divalent manganese ions in the compound varies with temperature. Above 750 K the relative content of the tetravalent manganese ion is less than that of the divalent manganese ion. The variation in the electrical resistivity of lanthanum manganite with temperature has also been interpreted reasonably.