Disorder enhanced ferromagnetic polaron formation -- and the test case of Europium Oxide

Abstract

Europium Oxide (EuO), a low carrier density local moment ferromagnet, shows a wide variety of transport behaviour depending on preparative conditions. Some samples have a moderate resistivity with a modest peak near $T_c$ while others show a huge peak in resistivity followed by insulating high temperature behaviour. These features have been known for decades and have been attributed to the presence of magnetic polarons in a disordered background. Actual attempts at a theory, however, reduce the problem either to a single trapped electron or to an averaged picture where the spatial physics of polarons is lost. The difficulty stems from having to handle electronic states in a magnetically fluctuating, structurally disordered background. Via an explicit real space calculation in two dimensions, we examine the interplay of disorder induced localisation and magnetic polaron formation and show how the resistivity trends in EuO could emerge from increasing impurity concentration. We estimate the polaron size in the disordered medium, establish the presence of a pseudogap near $T_c$, predict a crossover to incoherent, non Drude, optical response with growing disorder and temperature, and track the polaron `delocalisation' with increasing magnetic field.