Pressure-induced transition from localized electron toward band antiferromagnetism in LaMnO(3)

The temperature dependence of the ac susceptibility under pressure has been used to track the Néel temperature T(N) of the Mott insulators LaMnO3, CaMnO3, and YCrO3. Bloch's rule relating T(N) to volume V, viz., alpha=dlog(T(N)/dlog(V=-3.3, is obeyed in YCrO3 and CaMnO3; it fails in LaMnO3. This breakdown is interpreted to be due to a sharp increase in the factor [U(-1)+(2Delta)(-1)] entering the superexchange perturbation formula. A first-order change at 7 kbar indicates that the transition from localized-electron to band magnetism is not smooth.