  A temperature-dependent EXAFS investigation of La{1-x}Ca{x}MnO3 is presented
for the concentration range that spans the ferromagnetic-insulator (FMI) to
ferromagnetic-metal (FMM) transition region, x = 0.16-0.22. The samples are
insulating for x = 0.16-0.2 and show a metal/insulator transition for x = 0.22.
All samples are ferromagnetic although the saturation magnetization for the 16%
Ca sample is only ~ 70% of the expected value at 0.4T. We find that the FMI
samples have similar correlations between changes in the local Mn-O distortions
and the magnetization as observed previously for the colossal magnetoresistance
(CMR) samples (0.2 < x < 0.5) - except that the FMI samples never become fully
magnetized. The data show that there are at least two distinct types of
distortions. The initial distortions removed as the insulating sample becomes
magnetized are small and provides direct evidence that roughly 50% of the Mn
sites have a small distortion/site and are magnetized first. The large
remaining Mn-O distortions at low T are attributed to a small fraction of
Jahn-Teller-distorted Mn sites that are either antiferromagnetically ordered or
unmagnetized. Thus the insulating samples are very similar to the behavior of
the CMR samples up to the point at which the M/I transition occurs for the CMR
materials. The lack of metallic conductivity for x <= 0.2, when 50% or more of
the sample is magnetic, implies that there must be preferred magnetized Mn
sites and that such sites do not percolate at these concentrations.
