Disorder effects at low temperatures in La0.7−xYxCa0.3MnO3 manganites

With the aim of probing the effect of magnetic disorder in the low-temperature excitations of manganites, specific-heat measurements were performed in zero field, and in magnetic fields up to 9 T in polycrystalline samples of La0.7−xYxCa0.3MnO3, with Y concentrations x = 0, 0.10, and 0.15. Yttrium doping yielded the appearance of a cluster-glass state, giving rise to unusual low-temperature behavior of the specific-heat. The main feature observed in the results is a strong enhancement of the specific-heat linear term, which is interpreted as a direct consequence of magnetic disorder. The analysis was further corroborated by resistivity measurements in the same compounds.