High-pressure electrical resistivity behaviour of nanocrystalline perovskite (La, Sr)(Mn, Fe)O₃

We report here the electrical resistivity of nanocrystalline perovskite-structured La–Sr manganites as a function of pressures up to 8 GPa, at room temperature. The nanocrystalline perovskite manganites were prepared by the sol–gel technique and found to have crystallite sizes of 12–18 nm. The pressure dependence of the electrical resistivity shows a first-order phase transition at 0.66(2) GPa and a subtle phase transition between 3.5 and 3.8 GPa. The first-order transition at 0.66 GPa can be related to the transition from localized-electron to band magnetism.