Ferromagnetic insulating phase in Pr{1-x}Ca{x}MnO3

A ferromagnetic insulating (FM-I) state in Pr0.75Ca0.25MnO3 has been studied by neutron scattering experiment and theoretical calculation. The insulating behavior is robust against an external magnetic field, and is ascribed to neither the phase separation between a ferromagnetic metallic (FM-M) phase and a non-ferromagnetic insulating one, nor the charge ordering. We found that the Jahn-Teller type lattice distortion is much weaker than PrMnO3 and the magnetic interaction is almost isotropic. These features resembles the ferromagnetic metallic state of manganites, but the spin exchange interaction J is much reduced compared to the FM-M state. The theoretical calculation based on the staggered type orbital order well reproduces several features of the spin and orbital state in the FM-I phase.Comment: REVTeX4, 10 pages, 9 figure

Spin Dynamics of Double-Exchange Manganites with Magnetic Frustration

This work examines the effects of magnetic frustration due to competing ferromagnetic and antiferromagnetic Heisenberg interactions on the spin dynamics of the double-exchange model. When the local moments are non-colinear, a charge-density wave forms because the electrons prefer to sit on lines of sites that are coupled ferromagnetically. With increasing hopping energy, the local spins become aligned and the average spin-wave stiffness increases. Phase separation is found only within a narrow range of hopping energies. Results of this work are applied to the field-induced jump in the spin-wave stiffness observed in the manganite Pr$_{1-x}$Ca$_x$MnO$_3$ with $0.3 \le x \le 0.4$.Comment: 10 pages, 3 figure

Anomalous ferromagnetic spin fluctuations in an antiferromagnetic insulator Pr_{1-x}Ca_{x}MnO_{3}

The high temperature paramagnetic state in an antiferromagnetic (AFM) insulator Pr_{1-x}Ca_{x}MnO_{3} is characterized by the ferromagnetic (FM) spin fluctuations with an anomalously small energy scale. The FM fluctuations show a precipitous decrease of the intensity at the charge ordering temperature T_{CO}, but persist below T_{CO}, and vanish at the AFM transition temperature T_{N}. These results demonstrate the importance of the spin ordering for the complete switching of the FM fluctuation in doped manganites.Comment: REVTeX, 5 pages, 4 figures, submitted to Phys. Rev.

Spin Dynamics of a Canted Antiferromagnet in a Magnetic Field

The spin dynamics of a canted antiferromagnet with a quadratic spin-wave dispersion near \vq =0 is shown to possess a unique signature. When the anisotropy gap is negligible, the spin-wave stiffness \dsw (\vq, B) = (\omega_{\vq}-B)/q^2 depends on whether the limit of zero field or zero wavevector is taken first. Consequently, \dsw is a strong function of magnetic field at a fixed wavevector. Even in the presence of a sizeable anisotropy gap, the field dependence of both \dsw and the gap energy distinguishes a canted antiferromagnet from a phase-separated mixture containing both ferromagnetic and antiferromagnetic regions.Comment: 10 pages, 3 figure

Time Dependent Effects and Transport Evidence for Phase Separation in La_{0.5}Ca_{0.5}MnO_{3}

The ground state of La_{1-x}Ca_{x}MnO_{3} changes from a ferromagnetic metallic to an antiferromagnetic charge-ordered state as a function of Ca concentration at x ~ 0.50. We present evidence from transport measurements on a sample with x = 0.50 that the two phases can coexist, in agreement with other observations of phase separation in these materials. We also observe that, by applying and then removing a magnetic field to the mainly charge-ordered state at some temperatures, we can "magnetically anneal" the charge order, resulting in a higher zero-field resistivity. We also observe logarithmic time dependence in both resistivity and magnetization after a field sweep at low temperatures.Comment: 9 pages, LATEX, 3 postscript figure

Commensurate-Incommensurate transition in the melting process of the orbital ordering in Pr0.5Ca0.5MnO3: neutron diffraction study

The melting process of the orbital order in Pr0.5Ca0.5MnO3 single crystal has been studied in detail as a function of temperature by neutron diffraction. It is demonstrated that a commensurate-incommensurate (C-IC) transition of the orbital ordering takes place in a bulk sample, being consistent with the electron diffraction studies. The lattice structure and the transport properties go through drastic changes in the IC orbital ordering phase below the charge/orbital ordering temperature Tco/oo, indicating that the anomalies are intimately related to the partial disordering of the orbital order, unlike the consensus that it is related to the charge disordering process. For the same T range, partial disorder of the orbital ordering turns on the ferromagnetic spin fluctuations which were observed in a previous neutron scattering study.Comment: 5 pages, 2 figures, REVTeX, to be published in Phys. Rev.