No Arabic abstract
We study theoretically the magnetic and electric properties of the interface between two antiferromagnetic and insulating manganites: La0.5Ca0.5MnO3, a strong correlated insulator, and CaMnO3, a band-insulator. We find that a ferromagnetic and metallic electron gas is formed at the interface between the two layers. We confirm the metallic character of the interface by calculating the in-plane conductance. The possibility of increasing the electron gas density by selective doping is also discussed.
The voltage-spectral density SV(f) of the 2-dimensional electron gas formed at the interface of LaAlO3 /SrTiO3 has been thoroughly investigated. The low-frequency component has a clear 1/f behavior with a quadratic bias current dependence, attributed to resistance fluctuations. However, its temperature dependence is inconsistent with the classical Hooge model, based on carrier-mobility fluctuations. The experimental results are, instead, explained in terms of carrier-number fluctuations, due to an excitation-trapping mechanism of the 2-dimensional electron gas.
Femtosecond (fs)-resolved simultaneous measurements of charge and spin dynamics reveal the coexistence of two different quasi-particle excitations in colossal magneto-resistive (CMR) manganites, with {em fs} and {em ps} relaxation times respectively. Their populations reverse size above a {em photoexcitation-intensity-threshold} coinciding with a sudden antiferro-to-ferromagnetic switching during $<$100 fs laser pulses. We present evidence that fast, metallic, mobile quasi--electrons dressed by {em quantum spin fluctuations} coexist with slow, localized, polaronic charge carriers in non-equilibrium phases. This may be central to CMR transition and leads to a laser-driven charge reorganization simultaneously with quantum fs magnetism via an emergent quantum-spin/charge/lattice transient coupling.
The discovery that the interface between two band gap insulators LaAlO3 and SrTiO3 is highly conducting has raised an enormous interest in the field of oxide electronics. The LAlO3/SrTiO3 interface can be tuned using an electric field and switched from a superconducting to an insulating state. Conducting paths in an insulating background can be written applying a voltage with the tip of an atomic force microscope, creating great promise for the development of a new generation of nanoscale electronic devices. However, the mechanism for interface conductivity in LaAlO3/SrTiO3 has remained elusive. The theoretical explanation based on an intrinsic charge transfer (electronic reconstruction) has been strongly challenged by alternative descriptions based on point defects. In this work, thanks to modern aberration-corrected electron probes with atomic-scale spatial resolution, interfacial charge and atomic displacements originating the electric field within the system can be simultaneously measured, yielding unprecedented experimental evidence in favor of an intrinsic electronic reconstruction.
We employ time-resolved resonant x-ray diffraction to study the melting of charge order and the associated insulator-metal transition in the doped manganite Pr$_{0.5}$Ca$_{0.5}$MnO$_3$ after resonant excitation of a high-frequency infrared-active lattice mode. We find that the charge order reduces promptly and highly nonlinearly as function of excitation fluence. Density functional theory calculations suggest that direct anharmonic coupling between the excited lattice mode and the electronic structure drive these dynamics, highlighting a new avenue of nonlinear phonon control.
We report on the magnetotransport properties of a prototype Mott insulator/band insulator perovskite heterojunction in magnetic fields up to 31 T and at temperatures between 360 mK and 10 K. Shubnikov-de Haas oscillations in the magnetoresistance are observed. The oscillations are two-dimensional in nature and are interpreted as arising from either a single, spin-split subband or two subbands. In either case, the electron system that gives rise to the oscillations represents only a fraction of the electrons in the space charge layer at the interface. The temperature dependence of the oscillations are used to extract an effective mass of ~ 1 me for the subband(s). The results are discussed in the context of the t2g-states that form the bottom of the conduction band of SrTiO3.