Effects of the on-site Coulomb repulsion in double-exchange magnets

Abstract

We investigate the zero-temperature phase diagram and spin-wave properties of a double exchange magnet with on-site Hubbard repulsion. It is shown that even within a simple Hartree-Fock approach this interaction (which is often omitted in theoretical treatments) leads to qualitatively important effects which are highly relevant in the context of experimental data for the colossal magnetoresistance compounds. These include the asymmetry of the doping dependence of spin stiffness, and the zone-boundary “softening” of spin wave dispersion. Effects of Hubbard repulsion on phase separation are analyzed as well. We also show that in the ferromagnetic phase, an unusual temperature-dependent effective electron-electron interaction arises at finite $T$. The mean-field scheme, however, does not yield the experimentally observed density of states depletion near the Fermi level. We speculate that the proper treatment of electron-electron interactions may be necessary for understanding both this important feature and more generally the physics of colossal magnetoresistance phenomenon.