Conducting Jahn-Teller Domain Walls in Undoped Manganites

TL;DR

This paper explores how Jahn-Teller domain walls in undoped manganites create localized electronic states that significantly enhance conductance along the walls, with potential implications for electronic device design.

Contribution

It reveals the existence of localized electronic states at Jahn-Teller domain walls and their impact on conductance, using variational and Monte Carlo methods.

Findings

Localized electronic states are associated with Jahn-Teller domain walls.

Conductance along domain walls is much higher than in the bulk.

The properties of the electronic band depend on domain wall conformations.

Abstract

We investigate the electronic properties of multi-domain configurations in models for undoped manganites by means of variational and Monte Carlo techniques. These materials display simultaneous Jahn-Teller distortions and magnetic ordering. We find that a band of electronic states appears associated with Jahn-Teller domain walls, and this band is localized in the direction perpendicular to the walls. The energy and width of this band depends on the conformational properties of the domain walls. At finite temperatures, the conductance along the domain walls, induced by the localized domain wall bands, is orders magnitude larger than in the bulk.