Document DOI: 10.1209/epl/i2001-00429-5
Europhys. Lett., 55 (3) , pp. 411-417 (2001)
Mesoscopic, non-equilibrium fluctuations of inhomogeneous electronic states in manganites
V. Podzorov1, C. H. Chen2, M. E. Gershenson1 and S.-W. Cheong1, 21 Serin Physics Laboratory, Rutgers University - Piscataway, NJ 08854, USA
2 Bell Laboratories, Lucent Technologies - Murray Hill, NJ 07974, USA
(Received 15 January 2001; accepted 17 May 2001)
Abstract
By using the dark-field real-space imaging technique of
transmission electron microscopy (TEM), we have observed slow
200
scale fluctuations of charge-ordered (CO) phase in
mixed-valent manganites under a strong electron beam irradiation.
In addition to these unusual fluctuations of the CO phase, we
observed switching-type fluctuations of electrical resistivity in
the same sample, which were found to be as large as several
percents. Systematic analysis indicates that these two different
types of fluctuations with a similar time scale of the order of
seconds are interconnected through a metastable insulating
charge-disordered state. Current dependence of the fluctuations
suggests a non-equilibrium nature of this slow dynamics.
75.30.Vn - Colossal magnetoresistance.
68.37.Lp - Transmission electron microscopy (TEM) (including STEM, HRTEM, etc.).
74.40.+k - Fluctuations (noise, chaos, nonequilibrium superconductivity, localization, etc.).
© EDP Sciences 2001