Suppressed Coherence due to Orbital Correlations in the Ferromagnetically Ordered Metallic Phase of Mn Compounds

Abstract

Small Drude weight $D$ together with small specific heat coefficient $\gamma$ observed in the ferromagnetic phase of R$_{1-x}$A$_x$MnO$_3$ (R=La, Pr, Nd, Sm; A=Ca, Sr, Ba) are analyzed in terms of a proximity effect of the Mott insulator. The scaling theory for the metal-insulator transition with the critical enhancement of orbital correlations toward the staggered ordering of two $e_g$ orbitals such as $3x^2-r^2$ and $3y^2-r^2$ symmetries may lead to the critical exponents of $D \propto \delta^{u}$ and $\gamma \propto \delta^v$ with $u=3/2$ and $v=0$. The result agrees with the experimental indications.