Abstract
The origin of colossal magnetoresistance (CMR) in manganese oxides is among the most challenging problems in condensed-matter physics today. The true nature of the low-temperature electronic phase of these materials is heavily debated. By combining photoemission and tunnelling data, we show that in the archetypal bilayer system La2−2xSr1+2xMn2O7, polaronic degrees of freedom win out across the CMR region of the phase diagram. This means that the generic ground state of bilayer manganites supports a vanishing coherent quasi-particle spectral weight at the Fermi level throughout k-space. The incoherence of the charge carriers, resulting from strong electron–lattice interactions and the accompanying orbital physics, offers a unifying explanation for the anomalous charge-carrier dynamics seen in transport, optics and electron spectroscopies. The stacking number N is the key factor for true metallic behaviour, as an intergrowth-driven breakdown of the polaronic domination to give a metal possessing a traditional Fermi surface is seen in this system.
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Acknowledgements
We thank R. Huisman and M. Gobbi for help with ARPES and STM data acquisition, F. D. Tichelaar and H. Zandbergen for TEM investigations, H. Luigjes, H. Schlatter and J. S. Agema for valuable technical support and the IFW Dresden ARPES group for access to the SES100 end-station. We are grateful to N. Mannella, G. A. Sawatzky, A. J. Millis, P. Littlewood, E. van Heumen and J. Zaanen for useful discussions. This work is part of the research program of the Foundation for Fundamental Research on Matter (FOM), which is part of the Netherlands Organisation for Scientific Research (NWO).
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F.M. and S.d.J. contributed equally to this work. M.S.G., J.B.G., S.d.J. and F.M. designed the experiments. Y.H., D.P. and A.T.B. grew the crystals. F.M., S.d.J., Y.H., W.K.S., I.S., A.M. and M.S.G. carried out the experiments. R.F., A.V., L.P. and M.S. provided photons and assistance during the synchrotron beamtimes. S.d.J and F.M. carried out the data analysis. S.d.J., F.M., J.B.G. and M.S.G. interpreted the results and wrote the paper, with feedback from co-authors.
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Massee, F., de Jong, S., Huang, Y. et al. Bilayer manganites reveal polarons in the midst of a metallic breakdown. Nature Phys 7, 978–982 (2011). https://doi.org/10.1038/nphys2089
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DOI: https://doi.org/10.1038/nphys2089
