Raman scattering studies of the temperature- and field-induced melting of charge order in La⁢Pr⁡Ca1−−⁢MnO3

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Erscheinungsjahr:
2008
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  • We present Raman scattering studies of the structural and magnetic phases that accompany temperature- and field-dependent melting of charge- and orbital-order (COO) in La0.5⁢Ca0.5⁢MnO3 and La0.25⁢Pr0.375⁡Ca0.375⁢MnO3. Our results show that thermal and field-induced COO melting in La0.5⁢Ca0.5⁢MnO3 exhibits three stages in a heterogeneous melting process: At low temperatures and fields we observe a long-range, strongly Jahn-Teller (JT) distorted-COO phase; at intermediate temperatures and/or fields, we find a coexistence regime comprising both strongly JT distorted-COO and weakly JT distorted/ferromagnetic metal (FMM) phases; and at high temperatures and/or high fields, we observe a weakly JT distorted homogeneous paramagnetic (PM) or ferromagnetic (FM) phase. In the high field-high temperature regime of La0.5⁢Ca0.5⁢MnO3 and La0.25⁢Pr0.375⁡Ca0.375⁢MnO3, we identify a clear structural change to a weakly JT distorted phase that is associated with either a Imma or Pnma structure. We are able to provide a complete structural phase diagram of La0.5⁢Ca0.5⁢MnO3 for the temperature and field ranges 6≤≤170K and 0≤≤9T. Significantly, we provide evidence that the field-induced melting transition of La0.5⁢Ca0.5⁢MnO3 is first-order, and resembles a crystallization transition of an “electronic solid.” We also investigate thermal and field-induced melting in La0.25⁢Pr0.375⁡Ca0.375⁢MnO3 to elucidate the role of disorder in melting of COO. We find that while thermal melting of COO in La0.25⁢Pr0.375⁡Ca0.375⁢MnO3 is quite similar to that in La0.5⁢Ca0.5⁢MnO3, field-induced melting of COO in the two systems is quite different in several respects: The field-induced transition from the COO phase to the weakly JT-distorted-FM phase in La0.25⁢Pr0.375⁡Ca0.375⁢MnO3 is very abrupt, and occurs at significantly lower fields (∼2T at ∼0K) than in La0.5⁢Ca0.5⁢MnO3 (∼30T at =0K); the intermediate coexistence regime is much narrower in La0.25⁢Pr0.375⁡Ca0.375⁢MnO3 than in La0.5⁢Ca0.5⁢MnO3; and the critical field increases with increasing temperature in La0.25⁢Pr0.375⁡Ca0.375⁢MnO3, in contrast to the decrease in observed with increasing temperature in La0.5⁢Ca0.5⁢MnO3. To explain these differences, we propose that field-induced melting of COO in La0.25⁢Pr0.375⁡Ca0.375⁢MnO3 is best described as the field-induced percolation of FM domains, and we suggest that Griffiths phase physics may be an appropriate theoretical model for describing the unusual temperature- and field-dependent transitions observed in La0.25⁢Pr0.375⁡Ca0.375⁢MnO3.
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  • info:eu-repo/semantics/closedAccess
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Forschungsinformationssystem der UHH

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