Theory of strain-controlled magnetotransport and stabilization of the ferromagnetic insulating phase in manganite thin films
Anamitra Mukherjee, William S. Cole, Patrick Woodward, Mohit Randeria, and Nandini Trivedi
Accepted
We show that applying strain on half-doped manganites makes it possible to tune the system to the proximity of a metal-insulator transition, and thereby generate a colossal magnetoresistance (CMR) response. This phase competition not only allows control of CMR in ferromagnetic metallic manganites but can be used to generate CMR response in otherwise robust insulators at half doping. Further, from our realistic microscopic model of strain and magneto-transport calculations within the Kubo formalism, we demonstrate a striking result of strain engineering that under tensile strain a ferromagnetic charge ordered insulator, previously inaccessible to experiments, becomes stable.