Tunable two-phase coexistence in half-doped manganites

Abstract

We discuss our very interesting experimental observation that the low-temperature two-phase coexistence in half-doped manganites is multi-valued (at any field) in that we can tune the coexisting antiferromagnetic-insulating (AF-I) and the ferromagnetic-metallic (FM-M) phase fractions by following different paths in (H, T) space. We have shown experimentally that the phase fraction, in this two-phase coexistence, can take continuous infinity of values. All but one of these are metastable, and two-phase coexistence is not an equilibrium state.