Percolative phase separation underlies colossal magnetoresistance in mixed-valent manganites

A negative isotropic magnetoresistance effect more than three orders of magnitude larger than the typical giant magnetoresistance of some superlattice films has been observed in thin oxide films of perovskite-like La(0.67)Ca(0.33)MnOx. Epitaxial films that are grown on LaAIO(3) substrates by laser ablation and suitably heat treated exhibit magnetoresistance values as high as 127,000 percent near 77 kelvin and approximately 1300 percent near room temperature. Such a phenomenon could be useful for various magnetic and electric device applications if the observed effects of material processing are optimized. Possible mechanisms for the observed effect are discussed.

The \(La_{1-x} Sr_x MnO_3\) system with \(0.2 \lesssim x \lesssim 0.4\) has traditionally been modelled with a ``double exchange'' Hamiltonian, in which it is assumed that the only relevant physics is the tendency of carrier hopping to line up neighboring spins. We present a solution of the double exchange model, show it is incompatible with many aspects of the resistivity data, and propose that a strong electron-phonon interaction arising from a Jahn-Teller splitting of the outer Mn d-level plays a crucial role.