Electronically soft phases in manganites

The phenomenon of colossal magnetoresistance in manganites1 is generally agreed to be a result of competition between crystal phases with different electronic, magnetic and structural order; a competition which can be strong enough to cause phase separation between metallic ferromagnetic and insulating charge-modulated states2,3,4,5. Nevertheless, closer inspection of phase diagrams in many manganites reveals complex phases where the two order parameters of magnetism and charge modulation unexpectedly coexist6,7. Here we show that such experiments can be naturally explained within a phenomenological Ginzburg–Landau theory. In contrast to models where phase separation originates from disorder8 or as a strain-induced kinetic phenomenon9, we argue that magnetic and charge modulation coexist in new thermodynamic phases. This leads to a rich diagram of equilibrium phases, qualitatively similar to those seen experimentally. The success of this model argues for a fundamental reinterpretation of the nature of charge modulation in these materials, from a localized to a more extended ‘charge-density wave’ picture. The same symmetry considerations that favour textured coexistence of charge and magnetic order may apply to many electronic systems with competing phases. The resulting ‘electronically soft’ phases of matter with incommensurate, inhomogeneous and mixed order may be general phenomena in correlated systems.