Manganite charge and orbitally ordered and disordered states probed by Fe substitution into Mn site in , and (, Gd, Sm, Nd, Pr, La)

The layered manganese oxides LnBaMn_1.96Fe_0.04O_y (Ln=Y, Gd, Sm, Nd, Pr, La) have been synthesized for y=5,5.5 and 6. In the oxygen-saturated state (y=6) they exhibit the charge and orbital order at ambient temperature for Ln=Y, Gd, Sm, but unordered e_g-electronic system for Ln=La, Pr, Nd. Fourfold increase of quadrupole splitting was observed owing to the charge and orbital ordering. This is in agreement with the jumplike increase in distortion of the reduced perovskite-like cell for the charge and orbitally ordered manganites compared to the unordered ones. Substitution of 2% of Mn by Fe suppresses the temperatures of structural and magnetic transitions by 20–50 K. Parameters of the crystal lattices and the room-temperature Mössbauer spectra were studied on 40 samples whose structures were refined within five symmetry groups: P4/mmm, P4/nmm, Pm-3m, Icma and P2/m. Overwhelming majority of the Fe species are undifferentiated in the Mössbauer spectra for most of the samples. Such the single-component spectra in the two-site structures are explained by the preference of Fe towards the site of Mn(III) and by the segmentation of the charge and orbitally ordered domains.