Prof. Alexander L. Rakhmanov (Institute for Theoretical and Applied Electrodynamics, Russian Academy of Sciences, Moscow)
"Phase separation in manganites with localized and itinerant charge carriers"
The phase separation phenomena are a key issue in the physics of strongly correlated electron systems, especially in manganites and related compounds. A minimal model dealing with the competition between the localization and metallicity in manganites was formulated. It is shown that the number of itinerant charge carriers can be significantly lower than that implied by the doping level. The competition between the homogeneous (ferromagnetic or antiferromagnetic) and phase separated states is discussed and a strong tendency to the phase separation was revealed for a wide doping range. The experimental results obtained for the doped manganites are discussed in relation with the theoretical predictions.