Theory of colossal magnetoresistance

TL;DR

This paper reviews the development of understanding colossal magnetoresistance in perovskite manganese oxides, highlighting the roles of coupled degrees of freedom, disorder, and inhomogeneous textures in the phenomenon.

Contribution

It synthesizes recent experimental and theoretical insights into the microscopic mechanisms involving charge, spin, and lattice interactions in magnetoresistance.

Findings

Strong coupling of spin, charge, and lattice degrees of freedom.

Evidence for inhomogeneous textures driven by disorder.

Modeling of localized polaron structures and multiscale ordering.

Abstract

The history and recent developments in studying (colossal) magnetoresistance in perovskite manganese oxides is reviewed. We emphasize the growing evidence for strongly coupled spin, charge and lattice degrees of freedom. Together with disorder, these provide the microscopic driving forces for local and inhomogeneous textures. The modeling and experimental probes for localized charge-spin-lattice (polaron) structures, and their multiscale ordering, is discussed in terms of a growing synergy of solid state physics and materials science perspectives.