Charge and orbital order in half-doped manganites

TL;DR

This paper explains the charge and orbital order in half-doped manganites as a result of competing energies leading to insulating, orbital-ordered chains and charge ordering driven by Coulomb interactions, with phase separation at lower doping.

Contribution

It provides a theoretical explanation for charge and orbital order in half-doped manganites, emphasizing the role of kinetic, magnetic, and Coulomb energies.

Findings

Formation of insulating ferromagnetic zig-zag chains due to energy competition

Charge ordering driven by Coulomb interactions among Mn electrons

Phase separation into metallic and insulating phases at doping less than 1/2

Abstract

An explanation is given for the charge order, orbital order and insulating state observed in half-doped manganese oxides, such as Nd$_{1/2}$Sr$_{1/2}$MnO$_{3}$. The competition between the kinetic energy of the electrons and the magnetic exchange energy drives the formation of effectively one-dimensional ferromagnetic zig-zag chains. Due to a topological phase factor in the hopping, the chains are intrinsically insulating and orbital-ordered. Most surprisingly, the strong Coulomb interaction between electrons on the same Mn-ion leads to the experimentally observed charge ordering. For doping less than 1/2 the system is unstable towards phase separation into a ferromagnetic metallic and charge-ordered insulating phase.