Abstract
We investigate the microscopic nature of the "charge ordering" modulation in mixed-valent manganites in real space using scanning transmission electron microscopy. The modulation in Bi(0.5)Sr(0.4)Ca(0.1)MnO(3) has a uniform periodicity appearing as stripes in high angle annular dark field images. Geometric phase analysis shows the modulation to be a displacement wave with transverse amplitude (0.008 +/- 0.001)a and longitudinal amplitude (0.003 +/- 0.001)a. Series of energy loss spectra taken across the stripes show no periodic changes and place an upper bound of +/- 0.04 on any valence changes of the Mn ions.