Comment on ‘‘Magnetoresistance and phase composition of La-Sn-Mn-O systems’’

A. CANEIRO; L. MORALES; F. PRADO; D. LAMAS; R.D. SANCHEZ; A. SERQUIS

PHYSICAL REVIEW B

AMER PHYSICAL SOC

Lugar: New York; Año: 2000 vol. 62 p. 6825 - 6826

1098-0121

In a published paper by Li et al. @Phys. Rev. B 60, 10 284 ~1999!# the transport properties and phasecomposition of the manganites La12xSnxMnO31d (x50.1–0.5) are studied. The authors analyze their resultsassuming the existence of two phases: a perovskite LaMnO31d and a pyrochlore (La0.5Sn0.5)2Mn2O7. Weconsider that they misinterpret the x-ray diffraction data and we conclude that the manganitesLa12xSnxMnO31d are in fact a multiphase material composed by LaMnO31d , La2Sn2O7, Mn3O4, and SnO2.The magnetic transition observed by Mo¨ssbauer experiments around 65 K attributed by Li et al. to that of the(La0.5Sn0.5)2Mn2O7 pyrochlore phase would correspond to that of the paramagnetic-ferrimagnetic one ofFe-doped Mn3O4.