Spin-controlled Mott-Hubbard bands in LaMnO_3 probed by optical   ellipsometry
  Spectral ellipsometry has been used to determine the dielectric function of an untwinned crystal of LaMnO_3 in the spectral range 0.5-5.6 eV at temperatures 50 K < T < 300 K. A pronounced redistribution of spectral weight is found at the Neel temperature T_N = 140 K. The anisotropy of the spectral weight transfer matches the magnetic ordering pattern. A superexchange model quantitatively describes spectral weight transfer induced by spin correlations. This analysis implies that the lowest-energy transitions around 2 eV are intersite d-d transitions, and that LaMnO_3 is a Mott-Hubbard insulator. 
N.N. Kovaleva, A.V. Boris, C. Bernhard, A. Kulakov, A. Pimenov, A.M.   Balbashov, G. Khaliullin, and B. Keimer