For technological development, and to meet new demands of tomorrow's society, there is a constant need for new materials with new or improved properties. Recently, the perovskite-like rare-earth manganese compounds have been an intensive topic in scientific studies and potential technological application because of their charge and orbital ordering, magnetic phase transitions, colossal magnetoresistance CMR effect as well as magnetocaloric effect MCE. Potential applications of the CMR effect in mixed-valence manganites include magnetic sensors; magnetoresistive read heads; and...