Micro-Raman spectroscopic analyses have been performed for the layered LiMnO 2 compound and its delithiated/relithiated derivatives in order to probe the effect of Li extraction/insertion on the local structure around manganese ion in this layered material. For this purpose, we have first tried to establish a spectroscopic measure for identifying the lithium manganates with closely related structures. From the detailed comparison among the Raman spectra of layered and spinel-structured lithium manganates, both phases can be easily differentiated from each other by using micro-Raman spectroscopy. Based on these experimental findings, we are able to conclude that the chemical or electrochemical deintercalation of lithium gives rise to the Mn migration into the interlayer lithium site, resulting in the creation of the spinel-like cation ordering.Recently, lithium manganese oxides have received considerable attention as promising cathode materials in lithium secondary batteries, since manganese is more abundant, less expensive, and less toxic than cobalt used in the currently commercialized lithium rechargeable batteries. 1-3 For this reason, intense research efforts have been directed not only to develop new types of manganese-based compounds but also to improve the electrochemical performance of existing lithium manganate cathode materials. Although the spinel LiMn 2 O 4 is the most widely studied among the lithium manganate systems, there is increasing interest in other types of lithium manganese oxides such as layered LiMnO 2 , orthorhombic LiMnO 2 , nanocrystalline manganese oxyiodides, etc. 4-8 Among them, the layered LiMnO 2 exhibits the largest initial capacity for the 4 V region but it suffers from severe capacity fading after the first charge process. 4 Such a remarkable capacity loss would be attributed to the destabilization of layered structure induced by the electrochemical delithiation reaction. 9,10 In fact, most manganese oxides have been known to experience such a structural modification during extended electrochemical charge/discharge cycling. 11,12 Since the local atomic arrangement of the cathode material is closely related to its electrochemical performance, neutron and X-ray diffraction ͑XRD͒ analyses were performed to investigate the variation of the crystal structure of lithium manganese oxides during electrochemical cycling. 13,14 Although these diffraction methods have been reported to be useful in probing the average structure of electrode material, they cannot provide detailed information on the local structure around manganese ion. As an alternative tool, vibrational spectroscopy allows us to examine the local crystal structure of cathode materials including the electrochemically cycled derivative with poor crystallinity, since it does not need long range structural order. 15-20 Moreover, taking into account the fact that the vibrational spectrum is very sensitive to the crystal symmetry, this kind of spectroscopic method should be effective in differentiating various kinds of lithium ma...