Double Exchange in a Magnetically Frustrated System

TL;DR

This paper investigates the magnetic order and spin dynamics of a double-exchange model with competing interactions, revealing phase transitions, charge-density wave formation, and implications for manganite materials under magnetic fields.

Contribution

It introduces a detailed analysis of a double-exchange model with Villain-type interactions, highlighting the effects of frustration, electron delocalization, and external fields on magnetic phases.

Findings

Identification of a magnetically frustrated canted antiferromagnetic ground state.

Charge-density wave formation linked to electron localization.

Explanation of spin-wave stiffness changes in manganites under magnetic fields.

Abstract

This work examines the magnetic order and spin dynamics of a double-exchange model with competing ferromagnetic and antiferromagnetic Heisenberg interactions between the local moments. The Heisenberg interactions are periodically arranged in a Villain configuration in two dimensions with nearest-neighbor, ferromagnetic coupling $J$ and antiferromagnetic coupling $-\eta J$. This model is solved at zero temperature by performing a $1/\sqrt{S}$ expansion in the rotated reference frame of each local moment. When $\eta $ exceeds a critical value, the ground state is a magnetically frustrated, canted antiferromagnet. With increasing hopping energy $t$ or magnetic field $B$, the local moments become aligned and the ferromagnetic phase is stabilized above critical values of $t$ or $B$. In the canted phase, a charge-density wave forms because the electrons prefer to sit on lines of sites that are coupled ferromagnetically. Due to a change in the topology of the Fermi surface from closed to open, phase separation occurs in a narrow range of parameters in the canted phase. In zero field, the long-wavelength spin waves are isotropic in the region of phase separation. Whereas the average spin-wave stiffness in the canted phase increases with $t$ or $\eta $, it exhibits a more complicated dependence on field. This work strongly suggests that the jump in the spin-wave stiffness observed in Pr$_{1-x}$Ca$_x$MnO$_3$ with $0.3 \le x \le 0.4$ at a field of 3 T is caused by the delocalization of the electrons rather than by the alignment of the antiferromagnetic regions.