Electric Field Induced Collapse of Charge-Ordered Phase in Manganites

Abstract

The colossal electroresistance in manganites is a concomitant of the electric field induced insulator-to-metal phase transition. A phenomenological phase transition model is proposed to study this electric field induced collapse of charge-ordered phase. The hysteresis of the phase transition is well explained using the effective medium approximation. The volume fraction of metallic region at the metal-to-insulator transition point is estimated as 30%. In addition, it is found that the critical electric field to melt the charge-ordered phase will decrease with the applied magnetic field.