# REFERENCES

Comment on “Spin Dependent Hopping and Colossal Negative Magnetoresistance in Epitaxial $`\mathrm{𝐍𝐝}_{\mathbf{0.52}}\mathrm{𝐒𝐫}_{\mathbf{0.48}}\mathrm{𝐌𝐧𝐎}_\mathrm{𝟑}`$ Films in Fields up to 50 T”

Recently Wagner et al.  proposed a modification of Mott’s original model to explain the magnetoresistance scaling in the ferromagnetic and paramagnetic regimes of the perovskite $`\mathrm{Nd}_{0.52}\mathrm{Sr}_{0.48}\mathrm{MnO}_3`$ films (in fields up to 50 T). These authors claimed that there is a hopping barrier which depends on the misorientation between the spins of electrons at the initial and the final states in an elementary process. They further claimed that using the model they can explain the observed scaling behavior– negative-magnetoresistivity scaling proportional to the Brillouin function $``$ in the ferromagnetic state and to $`^2`$ in the paramagnetic state. In this comment we argue that the modification needed for Mott’s original model is different from that proposed by Wagner et al. and further show that our picture will successfully explain the observed scaling in the two regimes.

Firstly, within a polaronic picture where hopping takes place from a polarized cloud, the wave function of the carrier in two dimensions corresponds to a super localized carrier and not to just a localized carrier. This claim of super localization follows from the correspondence of the energy equation to that of a simple harmonic oscillator. The polaronic free energy expression (up to a constant) that needs to be minimized in two dimensions is given by

$$\frac{\pi ^2\mathrm{}^2}{2mR_\xi ^2}+\frac{\pi R_\xi ^2}{a^2}[\mathrm{\Delta }IT\mathrm{\Delta }S],$$
(1)   
where $`R_\xi `$ is the radius of the polaron, $`a`$ is the lattice constant, $`\mathrm{\Delta }I`$ is the change in interaction energy due to polaron formation, $`\mathrm{\Delta }S`$ is the change in entropy, and $`m=\mathrm{}^2/(2ta^2)`$ with $`t`$ being the hopping integral. At $`T=T_C`$ we get a ferromagnetic transition because the polarons try to align in the same direction and coalesce so as to minimize the kinetic energy and because the area spanned by the polarons is of the order of the area of the system. Also from Eq. (1) it follows that the wavefunction is of the form $`\mathrm{exp}[(\alpha R^2/R_\xi ^2)]`$. Thus the exponential part of the hopping conductivity is of the form $`\mathrm{exp}[2\alpha R^2/R_\xi ^2W_{ij}/(k_BT)]`$ which when minimized in the usual fashion yields $`\mathrm{exp}[(T_0/T)^{1/2}]`$.

Next, we observe that since the Hund’s coupling constant is much larger than the hopping term $`t`$, in an elementary hopping process the hopping probability gets modified by a multiplicative term $`(1+M^2/M_{S}^{}{}_{}{}^{2})/2`$ with $`M/M_S`$ being magnetization fraction. Furthermore, the potential energy difference $`W_{ij}`$ between the two (initial and final) hopping sites does not change with magnetization. Because of the large value of the Hund’s coupling, as now known , the mobile electron will always align its spin parallel to the localized spin. The above multiplicative factor results from the sum of the probabilities for the following four processes: (i)hopping from a randomly or paramagnetically oriented (P) site to a ferromagnetically aligned (F) site \[$`0.5\times (1M/M_S)\times (M/M_S)`$\]; (ii) hopping from a F site to a P site \[$`0.5\times (M/M_S)\times (1M/M_S)`$\]; (iii) hopping from a F site to a F site \[$`(M/M_S)\times (M/M_S)`$\]; and (iv) hopping from a P site to a P site \[$`0.5\times (1M/M_S)\times (1M/M_S)`$\]. The above mentioned multiplicative term has also been deduced by Appel . Thus the hopping conductivity finally takes the form

$`\sigma =e^2R^2\nu _{\mathrm{ph}}{\displaystyle \frac{(1+M^2/M_{S}^{}{}_{}{}^{2})}{2}}N(E_F)\mathrm{exp}[(T_0/T)^{1/2}].`$   
Now assuming that in the paramagnetic regime the value of $`M/M_S`$ is small we get the magnetoresistance to be proportional to $`M^2/M_{S}^{}{}_{}{}^{2}`$. Next we assume that the contribution to the magnetization from the polarons is much larger than that from individual spins (which would be reasonable because of the size of the polarons and the fact that at $`T=T_C`$ the area occupied by the polarons is of the order of the area of the system). Thus we approximate $`M/M_S`$ by the Brillouin function $`[g\mu _BJB/(k_BT)]`$.

Lastly, in the ferromagnetic regime the transport is band like and not of hopping type as assumed in Ref. . In the ferromagnetic regime when the magnetization is sizeable, a decrease in resistivity due to an increase in magnetic field would be linear in the increase in magnetization. As the magnetic field in the ferromagnetic regime increases, although the increase in the size of the polaron is small (because Zeeman energy is smaller than interaction energy), more number of polarons get aligned in the direction of the magnetic field thereby increasing the size of the conducting domain. Since the increase in magnetization is mainly due to the magnetization of non-aligned polarons it can be taken to be proportional to $``$.

At higher temperatures larger polarons get aligned due to the weight of the Boltzmann factor. Thus the total spin $`J`$ of the polaron, as obtained from the Brillouin function, decreases as the temperature is lowered below $`T_C`$.

Sudhakar Yarlagadda

Saha Institute of Nuclear Physics, Calcutta, India

Received   
PACS numbers: 73.50.Jt, 71.30.+h, 75.70.Pa, 75.70.Ak