# Temperature dependence of the resistivity in the double-exchange model

## Abstract

The resistivity around the ferromagnetic transition temperature in the double exchange model is studied by the Schwinger boson approach. The spatial spin correlation responsible for scattering of conduction electrons are taken into account by adopting the memory function formalism. Although the correlation shows a peak lower than the transition temperature, the resistivity in the ferromagnetic state monotonically increases with increasing temperature due to a variation of the electronic state of the conduction electron. In the paramagnetic state, the resistivity is dominated by the short range correlation of scattering and is almost independent of the temperature. It is attributed to a cancellation between the nearest-neighbor spin correlation, the fermion bandwidth, and the fermion kinetic energy. This result implies the importance of the temperature dependence of the electronic states of the conduction electron as well as the localized spin states in both ferromagnetic and paramagnetic phases.

The recent discovery of colossal magnetoresistance (CMR)  has revived interest in perovskite manganites such as La<sub>1-x</sub>Sr<sub>x</sub>MnO<sub>3</sub>. It is widely accepted that significant changes in the transport properties, as well as CMR, are observed around the transition between the ferromagnetic phase and the paramagnetic one. More than 40 years ago, Zener  proposed a double-exchange (DE) interaction to explain the correlation between electrical conduction and the ferromagnetism, in which the spin of a conduction electron and a localized core spin ($`\stackrel{}{S}`$) on the same site are strongly coupled by Hund’s rule. Since the hopping amplitude of the electron to the neighboring sites is maximum when the two neighboring core spins are parallel, the ferromagnetic metallic state is achieved by gaining the kinetic energy of the conduction electron.  These concepts were settled as the so-called DE model and the magnetic and transport properties in this model have been investigated intensively and extensively.

One of the main interest in this research field is the temperature dependence of the electrical resistivity. The resistivity in the DE model was studied in a mean-field theory by Kubo and Ohata,  and similar results have been reproduced by a dynamical mean-field theory by Furukawa.  In these calculations, however, the spatial correlation of the core spins is not included properly, although it is pointed out that it plays a crucial role in the electric transport near the Curie temperature ($`T_c`$).  The short range spin correlation was only considered in Ref. , and the spatial correlation was neglected in Ref. , where the dynamical fluctuation was taken into account. Millis et al. discussed a possibility that the behavior of the resistivity is greatly modified when the spatial correlation of the core spins is properly taken into account.  They showed that the resistivity is still increased below $`T_c`$ with decreasing the temperature. Being based on the calculated results which disagree with the experimental one, they concluded that the additional gradients, such as, the Jahn-Teller effect, are necessary to reproduce the observed behaviors.

In this paper, we calculate the temperature dependence of the resistivity in the DE model by the Schwinger boson approach. In order to include the effects of the spatial correlation of the core spins properly, we adopt the memory function formalism which was also used in Ref. . In addition, the temperature dependence of the electronic structure is determined self-consistently together with that of the core spins. The calculated resistivity monotonically decreases with decreasing temperature in the ferromagnetic states and does not show a peak below $`T_c`$, although the spin correlation has its maximum at $`T<T_c`$.

The Hamiltonian of DE model in the limit of strong Hund’s coupling is given by the Schwinger boson representation as follows,

$$=\frac{t}{2S_R}\underset{ij\sigma }{}\left[b_{i\sigma }^{}b_{j\sigma }f_i^{}f_j+\text{h.c.}\right]$$
(1)   
with the local constraint $`_\sigma b_{i\sigma }^{}b_{i\sigma }f_i^{}f_i=2S`$ at every lattice site $`i`$. Here, $`b_{i\sigma }`$ ($`\sigma =,`$) is a boson and $`f_i`$ is a spinless fermion operator, $`S_R=S+(1x)/2`$,  and $`x`$ is the doping concentration of holes ($`f_i^{}f_i=1x`$). We shall exclusively consider the case of $`S=\frac{3}{2}`$. A transition at $`T_c`$ from a ferromagnetic state to a paramagnetic state (described as Bose condensation of Schwinger bosons) was investigated by using a mean field Hamiltonian 

$`_{MF}`$ $`=`$ $`{\displaystyle \frac{Bt}{S_R}}{\displaystyle \underset{ij}{}}\left[f_i^{}f_j+\text{h.c.}\right]`$ (3)   
$`{\displaystyle \frac{Dt}{2S_R}}{\displaystyle \underset{ij\sigma }{}}\left[b_{i\sigma }^{}b_{j\sigma }+\text{h.c.}\right]`$   
with a global constraint

$$\underset{\sigma }{}b_{i\sigma }^{}b_{i\sigma }=2S_R,$$
(4)   
where $`B`$ and $`D`$ are given by $`\frac{1}{2}_\sigma b_{i\sigma }^{}b_{j\sigma }`$ and $`f_i^{}f_j`$, respectively, and both are determined self-consistently. This mean field treatment, however, leads to an additional transition at slightly higher temperature than $`T_c`$ (about $`1.4T_c`$) into an artifact state in which $`B=D=0`$.  As a result, above $`T_c`$ the fermion bandwidth ($`W_f12Bt/S_R`$) rapidly decreases. This decrease obviously causes a misleading diverging increase of the resistivity.

In the present study, we assume that Eq. (3) itself has a suitable form as a mean field Hamiltonian, but in order to avoid the difficulty mentioned above, the fermion bandwidth $`B`$ is determined as

$`B`$ $``$ $`{\displaystyle \frac{1}{2}}\sqrt{|{\displaystyle \underset{\sigma }{}}b_{i\sigma }^{}b_{j\sigma }|^2}`$ (5)   
$`=`$ $`{\displaystyle \frac{S_R}{\sqrt{2}}}\sqrt{1+({\displaystyle \frac{1}{2S_R^2}}{\displaystyle \underset{\sigma \sigma ^{}}{}}b_{i\sigma }^{}b_{i\sigma ^{}}b_{j\sigma ^{}}^{}b_{j\sigma }1)+{\displaystyle \frac{1}{S_R}}}`$ (6)   
$``$ $`{\displaystyle \frac{S_R}{\sqrt{2}}}\left[{\displaystyle \frac{1}{2}}+{\displaystyle \frac{1}{4S_R^2}}{\displaystyle \underset{\sigma \sigma ^{}}{}}b_{i\sigma }^{}b_{i\sigma ^{}}b_{j\sigma ^{}}^{}b_{j\sigma }\right]`$ (7)   
together with

$$Df_i^{}f_j$$
(8)   
in a self-consistent manner. Here, we ignore the Berry’s phase in the electron hopping and use the fact that $`_{\sigma \sigma ^{}}b_{i\sigma }^{}b_{i\sigma ^{}}b_{j\sigma ^{}}^{}b_{j\sigma }2S_R^2`$ in the high-temperatures limit. The approximation in Eq. (7) corresponds to the expansion with respect to $`\stackrel{}{S}_i\stackrel{}{S}_j`$. It should be noted that the fermion bandwidth obtained in Eq. (4) remains finite for $`T\mathrm{}`$ as expected, while $`\frac{1}{2}_\sigma b_{i\sigma }^{}b_{j\sigma }`$ characterizing a nearest-neighbor magnetic correlation (denoted by $`C`$) vanishes for $`T\mathrm{}`$ in this model. Therfore, the behavior obtained in the above formulas is physically reasonable.

The Curie temperature ($`T_c`$) in this model as a function of the doping concentration is shown in the inset of Fig. 1. Since $`T_c`$ is determined by Eq. (4), the results are essentially independent on the formula of $`B`$ and are the same as those in Ref. . The transition temperature is scaled independent on $`x`$ by $`D`$ as $`T_c/t2.5D`$.

The temperature dependencies of the fermion bandwidth normalized by a bare band-width ($`W=12t`$) are plotted in Fig. 1. At the transition temperature, the bandwidth does not directly depend on the doping concentration (it depends on $`x`$ only through $`S_R`$). This is because both the chemical potential and the condensate density of bosons are zero, and $`Dt/T_c`$, which is independent of $`x`$, is only a parameter in Eq. (7).  Further, $`W_f/W`$ approaches $`1/\sqrt{2}`$ in an infinite temperature limit. As a result, the behavior of the fermion bandwidth as a function of $`T/T_c`$ is almost universally independent of $`x`$. On the other hand, the behavior of the kinetic energy of the fermion ($`K_fBtf_i^{}f_j/S_R`$) as a function of $`T/T_c`$ (Fig. 1) changes depending on $`x`$. It is important that the bandwidth varies even in the disordered-spin regime of $`T>T_c`$. This behavior agrees well with the result in Ref. . In fact, the bandwidth at $`T_c`$ is 1.16 times bigger than that in the $`T\mathrm{}`$ limit.

The resistivity as a function of the temperature is calculated by the memory function method,  where the lowest order fluctuation from the mean field can be included automatically. In this lowest-order perturbational treatment, a static approximation for Schwinger bosons is appropriate. This is because the bandwidth of Schwinger bosons is much smaller than that of the fermion ($`DB`$) and the effects of the quantum fluctuation of bosons can be negligible for $`T>0.5T_c`$ where $`Dt/(2S_RT)1`$. The memory function is evaluated to leading order in $`1/S_R`$, and thus, the resistivity is written as

$$\rho =\frac{\mathrm{}^2a}{2e^2K_f\tau },$$
(9)   
with

$`{\displaystyle \frac{1}{\tau }}`$ $`=`$ $`{\displaystyle \frac{\pi t^4}{8\mathrm{}K_fS_R^4}}{\displaystyle \underset{i}{}}\mathrm{\Gamma }(\stackrel{}{R}_i){\displaystyle \frac{1}{N^2}}{\displaystyle \underset{\stackrel{}{p}_1\stackrel{}{p}_2}{}}\left({\displaystyle \frac{f(\epsilon _{\stackrel{}{p}_1})}{\epsilon _{\stackrel{}{p}_1}}}\right)`$ (10)   
$`\times `$ $`\delta (\epsilon _{\stackrel{}{p}_1}\epsilon _{\stackrel{}{p}_2})(e^{i\kappa _x}1)(e^{i\kappa _x}1)e^{i\stackrel{}{\kappa }\stackrel{}{R}_i},`$ (11)   
where $`\mathrm{\Gamma }(\stackrel{}{R}_i)`$ represents the spatial spin correlation defined as

$$\mathrm{\Gamma }(\stackrel{}{R}_i)\underset{\sigma \sigma ^{}\rho \rho ^{}}{}b_{0\sigma }^{}b_{x\sigma }b_{x\sigma ^{}}^{}b_{0\sigma ^{}}b_{i\rho }^{}b_{i+x\rho }b_{i+x\rho ^{}}^{}b_{i\rho ^{}}.$$
(12)   
Here, $`f(\epsilon _\stackrel{}{p})`$ is the Fermi distribution function of the spinless fermion, $`\stackrel{}{\kappa }=\stackrel{}{p}_1\stackrel{}{p}_2`$ is the momentum transfer of the fermion due to scattering, and the average $`\mathrm{}`$ is evaluated by the mean field Hamiltonian in Eq. (3). The same expression given by spin-variables has been derived in Ref. . It should be noted that in this model the actual value of the resistivity in units of $`ha/e^2`$ does not depend on that of $`t`$. This is because $`\epsilon _\stackrel{}{p}`$ and $`K_f`$ are scaled by $`t`$, and $`\tau `$ is scaled by $`1/t`$; thus, $`K_f\tau `$ becomes independent of $`t`$.

Results of the calculated resistivity ($`\rho `$) are shown in Fig. 2 as a function of the temperature ($`T`$) for several doping concentrations. The resistivity monotonically increases with increasing $`T`$ in a ferromagnetic state for all doping concentrations. In a paramagnetic state, the resistivity still weakly increases, i.e., metallic for $`x<0.2`$. In the case of $`x=0.2`$ to 0.25, the $`T`$-dependence almost vanishes for $`T>1.2T_c`$. For a further high doping concentration, $`x>0.2`$, the resistivity comes to weakly increase again. On the other hand, the corresponding inverse relaxation time ($`1/\tau `$) shown in the inset of the figure shows a different $`T`$-dependence: it decreases in the paramagnetic state for all cases of $`x`$. This difference clearly indicates the importance of the $`T`$-dependence of $`K_f`$ since $`\rho 1/(K_f\tau )`$.

These behaviors in the paramagnetic state can be understood in terms of Fisher and Langer’s scheme,  although it was originally proposed to analyze the electron transport in the transition metal ferromagnets. The inverse relaxation time in the DE model can be rewritten as 

$$\frac{1}{\tau }\frac{D(E_F)^2}{K_f}\underset{i}{}\mathrm{\Gamma }(\stackrel{}{R}_i)f(\stackrel{}{R}_i),$$
(13)   
where $`f(\stackrel{}{R}_i)`$ is the decaying oscillatory function, and $`D(E_F)`$ is the density of states at the Fermi level. In the case of the transition metal ferromagnets, $`\mathrm{\Gamma }(0)`$ does not depend on $`T`$ in the paramagnetic state; thus, the temperature dependent part of the resistivity is wholly determined by $`\mathrm{\Gamma }(\stackrel{}{R}_i)`$ for $`\stackrel{}{R}_i0`$.  In the case of the DE model, however, the term with $`\stackrel{}{R}_i=0`$ depends on $`T`$ through $`C`$ as

$$\mathrm{\Gamma }(0)8S_R^2(7C^2+S_R^2)\text{ for }S_R1,$$
(14)   
where $`C`$ is the correlation function between nearest neighboring spins. It gives a dominant contribution in $`1/\tau `$. Further, $`D(E_F)`$ ($`1/W_f`$) and $`K_f`$ also depend on $`T`$; therefore, the temperature dependence of $`1/\tau `$ and $`\rho `$ are given by

$$\frac{1}{\tau }\frac{7C^2+S_R^2}{W_f^2K_f},$$
(15)   
$$\rho \frac{7C^2+S_R^2}{W_f^2K_f^2}.$$
(16)   
These quantities for $`x=0.3`$ are plotted in Fig. 3 and roughly agree with the calculated results shown in Fig. 2. The rounding of the calculated $`\rho `$ at very close to $`T_c`$, however, must come from $`\mathrm{\Gamma }(\stackrel{}{R}_i)`$ at $`\stackrel{}{R}_i0`$.

It is worth to note that the calculated results in the temperature dependence of the resistivity are different from those in Ref. , although the memory function formalism is adopted in both cases. The discrepancy is attributed to the fact that in the present calculation the temperature dependence of the electronic structure, that is, $`W_f`$ and $`K_f`$ (shown in Fig. 1), are taken into account, as well as that of $`_i\mathrm{\Gamma }(\stackrel{}{R}_i)f(\stackrel{}{R}_i)`$. In fact, $`_i\mathrm{\Gamma }(\stackrel{}{R}_i)f(\stackrel{}{R}_i)`$ plotted in Fig. 4 shows a peak at $`T<T_c`$ which is smeared out in the resistivity due to the variation of the electronic structure. The peak structure originates from the process in which bosons in the condensate part are scattered to the non-condensate part, and vice versa.  It should be noted that, since the number of condensate bosons is macroscopically large, the lowest order perturbational treatment for such scattering processes might overestimate the scattering amplitude, and the resistivity might become slightly smaller than the present results because of higher order perturbations. In any case, the resistivity is unlikely to show the peak in the ferromagnetic state.

On the other hand, our results are similar to the previous results by Kubo and Ohata  except for the discontinuity in $`d\rho /dT`$ at $`T_c`$. In Ref. , only the shortest correlation of scattering ($`\stackrel{}{R}_i=0`$) is included and this is a suitable approximation as discussed above. It should be noted, however, that the physical mechanism leading to the weak temperature dependence of the resistivity in the paramagnetic state is completely different. The mechanism is a result of the cancellation between the band-width ($`W_f`$), the kinetic energy ($`K_f`$), and the nearest-neighbor spin correlation ($`C`$) in a somewhat complicated manner (Eq. (16)) in our calculations. On the other hand, these quantities used in Ref.  are temperature independent in the paramagnetic state. Further, the discontinuity in $`d\rho /dT`$ at $`T_c`$ comes from the sudden change of $`W_f`$, which is absent in our results since the contribution from $`\mathrm{\Gamma }(\stackrel{}{R}_i)`$ with $`R_i0`$ is not neglected near $`T_c`$ and $`W_f`$ is a smooth function of $`T`$. Although our results are also similar to the results by Furukawa,  it is likely to be just a coincidence because the spatial correlation of core spins between different sites are neglected and scattering processes responsible for the resistivity are different. It should be noted further that our results qualitatively agree with the recent results by Monte Carlo simulations.  For $`a=4\AA `$, at $`T_c`$, we obtain $`\rho 2\times 10^3`$ $`\mathrm{\Omega }`$cm, whose order also agrees with these results.

To conclude, using the Schwinger boson approach, we have calculated the resistivity in the double-exchange model. In this approach, the fermion bandwidth has been determined by the absolute value of the hopping amplitude giving a physically reasonable temperature dependence in contrast to the conventional Schwinger boson approach. The resistivity monotonically increases with increasing temperature in the ferromagnetic state, which is different from the previous results in Ref. . In the paramagnetic state, the resistivity is dominated by the short range correlation of scattering. Although the behavior slightly changes depending on the doping concentration, the temperature dependence almost vanishes due to a cancellation between the nearest-neighbor magnetic correlation, the fermion bandwidth, and the fermion kinetic energy. These results imply the importance of the temperature dependence of the electronic structure of the conduction electron in the both ferromagnetic and paramagnetic phases.

The results agree with the experiments for “higher” doping concentrations $`x0.3`$, where experimentally observed resistivity is relatively low as a whole ($`\rho 5\times 10^3`$ $`\mathrm{\Omega }`$cm at $`T_c`$) and shows a metallic behavior in the paramagnetic state. For lower concentrations $`x0.2`$, however, the experimentally observed singular behavior around the transition temperature and the insulating behavior in the paramagnetic state are not reproduced in our calculations. Other effects might play a crucial role in cooperation with the double exchange mechanism for the system with such the lower concentration.

One of the authors (Ishizaka) would like to thank T. Hiroshima for helpful discussions.