Structure – Transport Correlations in Mono-Valent Na+ Doped La1-xNaxMnO3 Manganites

We report the results of the structural, transport and magnetotransport studies on mono-valent doped La1-xNaxMnO3 (LNMO) (x = 0.05, 0.1 and 0.15) manganites. XRD measurement and Rietveld refinement on LNMO samples shows that, all the samples crystallize in distorted rhombohedral structure without any additional impurity peaks. The d.c. four probe resistivity measurements show that, the metal-insulator transition temperature (TP) exhibited by the Na doped manganites increases and resistivity decreases with increasing x. This behavior has been explained on the basis of size disorder effect, tolerance factor variation and structural modifications due to large size mono-valent Na-doping. In the metallic region, the resistivity data have been fitted to the zener double exchange (ZDE) polynomial law for all the three samples. Magnetoresistance (MR) studies show a decrease in low temperature (5K) MR while increase in room temperature MR with increase in Na-content in the LNMO manganites.