It is shown that the observed features of the orbital phase transition in AMnO3 perovskites (A = La, Pr, ..., Lu) are due to the occurrence of rotational distortions of a cubic lattice at high temperatures, causing anion displacements that create an “internal field” which, by symmetry, coincides with the order parameter describing the ordering of octahedra distorted due to the Jahn-Teller effect (orbital ordering). The influence of this “field” essentially determines the type of orbital ordering, its temperature and the nature of the phase transition. A comparative analysis of orbitally ordered states was carried out for the entire series of AMnO3, both in the framework of the phenomenological theory of phase transitions and on the basis of the three-minimum multi-lattice model proposed in the article. The specific features of the magnetic transitions in manganites, due to the specific features of the structure, are discussed.
Local Jahn-Teller distortions and orbital ordering inBa3Cu1+xSb2−xO9investigated by neutron scattering