Changes in the magnetic structure of (La0.25Pr0.75)0.7Ca0.3MnO3 upon the isotopic substitution of 18O for 16O

A giant isotope effect, wherein the low-temperature metallic state is replaced by an insulator state, was recently observed when ¹⁸O was substituted for ¹⁶O in (La_0.25Pr_0.75)_0.7Ca_0.3MnO₃ N. A. Babushkina, L. M. Belova, O. Yu. Gorbenko et al., Nature (London) 391, 159 (1998)]. In the present work, the temperature evolution of the magnetic structure of two samples of this compound is studied by neutron diffraction. One sample contained a natural mixture of oxygen isotopes, 99.7% ¹⁶O, while the other was enriched to 75% with the isotope ¹⁸O. It is established that the samples are crystallographically identical at room temperature. As the temperature decreases, the sample with ¹⁶O undergoes successive antiferromagnetic (T _AFM=5150 K) and ferromagnetic (T _FM=110 K) transitions, which lead to the establishment of a noncollinear ferromagnetic structure, while a purely antiferromagnetic (T _AFM=150 K) order arises in the sample with ¹⁸O. The temperature dependences of the intensities of the diffraction peaks associated with the charge ordering differ substantially in samples with ¹⁶O and ¹⁸O, and they correlate with the behavior of their electric resistance and magnetic structure. Pis’ma Zh. éksp. Teor. Fiz. 69, No. 1, 46–51 (10 January 1999)