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The R/Ba-ordered and R-site mixed compound Y0.5La0.5BaMn2O6 is synthesized, in which (Y, La) and Ba are regularly arranged, while Y and La randomly occupy the R-site. Y0.5La0.5BaMn2O6 has a tetragonal unit cell with a space group of P4/mmm. A structural transition between tetragonal and orthorhombic is observed at about 325 K by X-ray powder diffraction (XRD). Thermal magnetic measurement shows the occurrence of an antiferromagnetic transition at the temperature TN ~ 190 K. Anomalies in magnetization, resistivity and lattice parameters observed around 340 K indicate a charge/orbital order transition accompanying the structural phase transition. The R-site randomness effect is discussed to interpret the different properties of Y0.5La0.5BaMn2O6 between NdBaMn2O6 and SmBaMn2O6. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The crystallographic and the magnetic structures of the composite compound Nd2Co7 at 300 K are investigated by a combined refinement of X-ray diffraction data and high-resolution neutron diffraction data. The compound crystallizes into a hexagonal Ce2Ni7-type structure and consists of alternately stacking MgZn2-type NdCo2 and CaCu5-type NdCo5 structural blocks along the c axis. A magnetic structure model with the moments of all atoms aligning along the c axis provides a satisfactory fitting to the neutron diffraction data and coincides with the easy magnetization direction revealed by the X-ray diffraction experiments on magnetically pre-aligned fine particles. The refinement results show that the derived atomic moments of the Co atoms vary in a range of 0.7 uB[?]1.1 uB and the atomic moment of Nd in the NdCo5 slab is close to the theoretical moment of a free trivalent Nd3+ ion, whereas the atomic moment of Nd in the NdCo2 slab is much smaller than the theoretical value for a free Nd3+ ion. The remarkable difference in the atomic moment of Nd atoms between different structural slabs at room temperature is explained in terms of the magnetic characteristics of the NdCo2 and NdCo5 compounds and the local chemical environments of the Nd atoms in different structural slabs of the Nd2Co7 compound. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]