Structure and Spin Dynamics of La0.85_{0.85}Sr0.15_{0.15}MnO3_3

Neutron scattering has been used to study the structure and spin dynamics of La$_{0.85}$Sr$_{0.15}$MnO$_3$. The magnetic structure of this system is ferromagnetic below T_C = 235 K. We see anomalies in the Bragg peak intensities and new superlattice peaks consistent with the onset of a spin-canted phase below T_{CA} = 205 K, which appears to be associated with a gap at q = (0, 0, 0.5) in the spin-wave spectrum. Anomalies in the lattice parameters indicate a concomitant lattice distortion. The long-wavelength magnetic excitations are found to be conventional spin waves, with a gapless (< 0.02 meV) isotropic dispersion relation $E = Dq^2$. The spin stiffness constant D has a $T^{5/2}$ dependence at low T, and the damping at small q follows $q^4T^{2}$. An anomalously strong quasielastic component, however, develops at small wave vector above 200 K and dominates the fluctuation spectrum as T -> T_C. At larger q, on the other hand, the magnetic excitations become heavily damped at low temperatures, indicating that spin waves in this regime are not eigenstates of the system, while raising the temperature dramatically increases the damping. The strength of the spin-wave damping also depends strongly on the symmetry direction in the crystal. These anomalous damping effects are likely due to the itinerant character of the $e_g$ electrons.Comment: 8 pages (RevTex), 9 figures (encapsulated postscript

Anomaly in Spin Excitation Spectrum of Double-Exchange Systems with Randomness

Spin excitation spectrum of the double-exchange model is studied in the presence of randomness. Spin wave approximation in the ground state shows that the randomness significantly modifies the spectrum from the cosine-like one in the pure system to that with anomalies such as broadening, anti-crossing and gap opening. The origin of anomalies is speculated to be modulation of effective ferromagnetic coupling by the Friedel oscillation. These anomalies qualitatively reproduce the spin excitation spectrum in colossal magnetoresistance manganites whose Curie temperatures are relatively low. Our results suggest that randomness control is an important notion to understand effects of the A-site substitution which has previously been understood as the bandwidth control.Comment: 4 pages including 3 figure

Spin Dynamics of the Magnetoresistive Pyrochlore Tl_2Mn_2O_7

Neutron scattering has been used to study the magnetic order and spin dynamics of the colossal magnetoresistive pyrochlore Tl_2Mn_2O_7. On cooling from the paramagnetic state, magnetic correlations develop and appear to diverge at T_C (123 K). In the ferromagnetic phase well defined spin waves are observed, with a gapless ($\Delta <0.04$ meV) dispersion relation E=Dq^{2} as expected for an ideal isotropic ferromagnet. As T approaches T_C from low T, the spin waves renormalize, but no significant central diffusive component to the fluctuation spectrum is observed in stark contrast to the La$_{1-x}$(Ca,Ba,Sr)$_x$MnO$_3$ system. These results argue strongly that the mechanism responsible for the magnetoresistive effect has a different origin in these two classes of materials.Comment: 4 pages (RevTex), 4 figures (encapsulated postscript), to be published in Phys. Rev. Let

Optical Studies of a Layered Manganite La_{1.2}Sr_{1.8}Mn_2O_7 : Polaron Correlation Effect

Optical conductivity spectra of a cleaved ab-plane of a La_{1.2}Sr_{1.8}Mn_2O_7 single crystal exhibit a small polaron absorption band in the mid-infrared region at overall temperatures. With decreasing temperature (T) to Curie temperature (T_C), the center frequency of the small polaron band moves to a higher frequency, resulting in a gap-like feature, and that it collapses to a lower frequency below T_C. Interestingly, with decreasing T, the stretching phonon mode hardens above T_C and softens below T_C. These concurring changes of lattice and electronic structure indicate that short range polaron correlation exist above T_C but disappear with a magnetic ordering.Comment: 4 pages including 5 figures. submitted to Phys. Rev.

Perturbative calculation of the spin-wave dispersion in a disordered double-exchange model

We study the spin-wave dispersion of localized spins in a disordered double-exchange model using the perturbation theory with respect to the strength of the disorder potential. We calculate the dispersion upto the next-leading order, and extensively examine the case of one-dimension. We show that in that case, disorder yields anomalous gapped-like behavior at the Fermi wavenumber of the conduction electrons.Comment: 9 pages, 5 figure

Magnon Broadening Effect by Magnon-Phonon Interaction in Colossal Magnetoresistance Manganites

In order to study the magnetic excitation behaviors in colossal magnetoresistance manganites, a magnon-phonon interacting system is investigated. Sudden broadening of magnon linewidth is obtained when a magnon branch crosses over an optical phonon branch. Onset of the broadening is approximately determined by the magnon density of states. Anomalous magnon damping at the brillouine zone boundary observed in low Curie temperature manganites is explained.Comment: 4 pages incl. 4 figs. New e-mail: [email protected]

Charge Ordering and Phase Competition in the Layered Perovskite Lasr2mn2o7

Charge-lattice fluctuations are observed in the layered perovskite manganite LaSr2Mn2O7 by Raman spectroscopy as high as 340 K and with decreasing temperature they become static and form a charge ordered (CO) phase below TCO=210 K. In the static regime, superlattice reflections are observed through neutron and x-ray diffraction with a propagation vector (h+1/4,k-1/4,l). Crystallographic analysis of the CO state demonstrates that the degree of charge and orbital ordering in this manganite is weaker than the charge ordering in three dimensional perovskite manganites. A TN=170K a type-A antiferromagnetism (AF) develops and competes with the charge ordering, that eventually melts below T*=100K. High resolution diffraction measurements suggest that that CO- and AF-states do not coincide within the same region in the material but rather co-exist as separate phases. The transition to type-A antiferromagnetism at lower temperatures is characterized by the competition between these two phases.Comment: 9 pages, 6 figure

A novel spin wave expansion, finite temperature corrections and order from disorder effects in the double exchange model

The magnetic excitations of the double exchange (DE) model are usually discussed in terms of an equivalent ferromagnetic Heisenberg model. We argue that this equivalence is valid only at a quasi--classical level -- both quantum and thermal corrections to the magnetic properties of DE model differ from any effective Heisenberg model because its spin excitations interact only indirectly, through the exchange of charge fluctuations. To demonstrate this, we perform a novel large S expansion for the coupled spin and charge degrees of freedom of the DE model, aimed at projecting out all electrons not locally aligned with core spins. We generalized the Holstein--Primakoff transformation to the case when the length of the spin is by itself an operator, and explicitly constructed new fermionic and bosonic operators to fourth order in 1/\sqrt{S}. This procedure removes all spin variables from the Hund coupling term, and yields an effective Hamiltonian with an overall scale of electron hopping, for which we evaluate corrections to the magnetic and electronic properties in 1/S expansion to order O(1/S^2). We also consider the effect of a direct superexchange antiferromagnetic interaction between core spins. We find that the competition between ferromagnetic double exchange and an antiferromagnetic superexchange provides a new example of an "order from disorder" phenomenon -- when the two interactions are of comparable strength, an intermediate spin configuration (either a canted or a spiral state) is selected by quantum and/or thermal fluctuations.Comment: 21 pages revtex, 11 eps figure

Band structure of the Jahn-Teller polaron from Quantum Monte Carlo

A path-integral representation is constructed for the Jahn-Teller polaron (JTP). It leads to a perturbation series that can be summed exactly by the diagrammatic Quantum Monte Carlo technique. The ground-state energy, effective mass, spectrum and density of states of the three-dimensional JTP are calculated with no systematic errors. The band structure of JTP interacting with dispersionless phonons, is found to be similar to that of the Holstein polaron. The mass of JTP increases exponentially with the coupling constant. At small phonon frequencies, the spectrum of JTP is flat at large momenta, which leads to a strongly distorted density of states with a massive peak at the top of the band.Comment: 5 pages of REVTeX, 3 figure