Structural, electrical, magnetic, elastic and anelastic behaviour of Nd0.6Ca0.4MnO3

With a view to understanding the structural, electrical and magnetic, elastic and anelastic behaviour of charge ordered Nd0.6Ca0.4MnO3, systematic investigations were undertaken. The sample was synthesized by a sol-gel route. The sample was characterized by X-ray diffraction (XRD) using a Rietveld refinement technique and was found to have orthorhombic structure with space group Pnma. A study on the variation of electrical resistivity with temperature has been carried out in the range 100-300 K and it was found to exhibit a field induced transition. The ac susceptibility studies show two transition temperatures, which are attributed to charge ordering and a Néel transition. Internal friction and longitudinal modulus studies were carried out using the composite oscillator technique. An effort has been made to explain the observed anomalous behaviour by a qualitative model.