We have studied the bandwidth-temperature-magnetic field phase diagram of RE0.55Sr0.45MnO3 colossal magnetoresistance manganites with ferromagnetic metallic (FM) ground state. The bandwidth (or equivalently the double exchange interaction) was controlled both via chemical substitution and hydrostatic pressure with a focus on the vicinity of the critical pressure p * where the character of the zero-field FM transition changes from first to second order. Below p * the first-order FM transition extends up to a critical magnetic field, Hcr. It is suppressed by pressure and approaches zero on the larger bandwidth side where the surface of the first-order FM phase boundary is terminated by a multicritical end-point (p * ≈32 kbar, T * ≈188 K, H * =0). The change in the character of the transition and the decrease of the CMR effect is attributed to the reduced CO/OO fluctuations.
PACS numbers:Perovskite-type manganites exhibit various fundamental phenomena of current interest including colossal magnetoresistance (CMR), photo-and current-induced insulator to metal transition, first-order ferromagnetic transition and gigantic magneto-electric effect [1]. Most of them are collective effects arising from the strong interplay among the electronic degrees of freedom in the spin, charge and orbital sector which are further coupled to the underlying lattice. One of the most dramatic phase transformations induced by external stimuli is the magnetic field driven paramagnetic insulator (PI) to FM transition. It is observed in a broad range above the Curie temperature and the huge resistivity change associated with the transition is termed as colossal magnetoresistance. In the context of the CMR effect and the orbital order-disorder transition in manganites, the possibility that the first-order nature of phase transitions in three dimensional systems can be preserved in the presence of disorder has recently attracted much interest [2].Although the detailed mechanism of the CMR effect is still under debate, some of the basic ingredients have already been clarified. Among them the phase competition between the two robust neighboring states, i.e. the charge-and orbital-ordered insulator (CO/OO) and the ferromagnetic metal, is thought to be indispensable [1,3]. In the bandwidth-temperature (w − T ) phase diagram of CMR mangnites with low quenched disorder, these two phases are separated by a first-order phase boundary which can extend to as high temperature as T ≈ 200 K (see Fig. 1). It is terminated by a bicritical point where the CO/OO and FM transition line (T CO (w) and T C (w), respectively) meet each other. The temperature-induced transition from the high-temperature PI phase to the long-range ordered states on the both sides close to the bicritical point is of first order [4,5,6]. If quenched disorder is introduced to the lattice by alloying rare earth (RE) and alkali earth (AE) atoms on the A-sites with different ionic radius, the phase diagram is strongly modified; the bicritical point is suppressed and a spin-glass state appe...