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We report on epitaxial growth of single-phase [Pb(Zr0.57Ti0.43)O3]0.8[Pb(Fe2/3W1/3)O3]0.2 (PZT-PFW) solid-solution thin films using pulsed laser deposition. X-ray diffraction measurements reveal that the films have a tetragonal structure. The films exhibit ferroelectric properties and weak ferromagnetic responses at room temperature. Magnetoelectric effects were investigated; the nonlinear magnetoelectric coefficient was measured and found to be comparable to those of multiferroic hexagonal manganites, but at least two orders of magnitude smaller than that for polycrystalline PZT-PFW films., Comment: 5 figures

We investigated the $ab$-plane absorption spectra of $R$MnO$%_{3}$ ($R$ = La, Pr, Nd, Gd, and Tb) thin films. As the $R$-ion size decreases, we observed a drastic suppression of the 2 eV peak, \textit{i.e.} the inter-site optical transition between spin- and orbital-aligned states across the Mott gap. We found that both lattice distortion and the corresponding orbital mixing of the ordered orbital state should play an important role in the 2 eV peak suppression. We also found that the 2 eV spectral weight is proportional to the $A$-type antiferromagnetic ordering temperature, which suggests that the magnetic interaction might be sensitively coupled to the orbital mixing.

We investigated the magnetic field (H)-dependent optical conductivity spectra of MgB2 thin film in the far-infrared region. The H-dependences can be explained by the increase of normal metallic regions embedded in the superconducting background. The area fraction of the normal metallic region increases rather quickly at low field, but slowly at high field. It follows neither H- nor H^{1/2}-dependences. The results suggest the complicated nature of the superconducting gap in MgB2., Comment: 8 pages, 4 figures, submitted to PRB (Corrected typos : changed form)

We investigated optical properties of Nd(1-x)Sr(x)MnO3 (x= 0.40, 0.50, 0.55, and 0.65) single crystals. In the spin/orbital disordered state, their conductivity spectra look quite similar, and the strength of the mid-infrared absorption peak is proportional to x(1-x) consistent with the polaron picture. As temperature lowers, the Nd(1-x)Sr(x)MnO3 samples enter into various spin/orbital ordered states, whose optical responses are quite different. These optical responses can be explained by the spin/orbital ordering pattern-dependent polaron hopping., Comment: 3 figures (gzipped)

We reported far-infrared transmission measurements on a c-axis oriented superconducting MgB$_{2}$ thin film in the frequency range of 30 $\sim$ 250 cm$^{-1}$. We found that these measurements were sensitive to values of scattering rate $1/\tau$ and superconducting gap $2\Delta$. By fitting the experimental transmission spectra at 40 K and below, we obtained $1/\tau =$ (700 $\sim$ 1000) cm$^{-1}$ and $2\Delta (0)\cong$ 42 cm$^{-1}$. These two quantities suggested that MgB$_{2}$ belong to the dirty limit., Comment: submitted at May 4

Optical conductivity spectra of a cleaved ab-plane of a La_{1.2}Sr_{1.8}Mn_2O_7 single crystal exhibit a small polaron absorption band in the mid-infrared region at overall temperatures. With decreasing temperature (T) to Curie temperature (T_C), the center frequency of the small polaron band moves to a higher frequency, resulting in a gap-like feature, and that it collapses to a lower frequency below T_C. Interestingly, with decreasing T, the stretching phonon mode hardens above T_C and softens below T_C. These concurring changes of lattice and electronic structure indicate that short range polaron correlation exist above T_C but disappear with a magnetic ordering., Comment: 4 pages including 5 figures. submitted to Phys. Rev. B

Magnetic field ($H$)-dependent optical conductivity spectra $\sigma (\omega) $ and dielectric constant spectra $\epsilon (\omega)$ of a layered antiferromagnet ($A$-type) Pr$_{1/2}$Sr$_{1/2}$MnO$_3$ were presented. At 0.0 T in 4.2 K, the $\sigma (\omega)$ showed a small Drude-like peak in the far-infrared region and a broad absorption peak in the mid-infrared region. With increasing $H$, large spectral weights were transferred from high to low energy regions with increase of the Drude-like peak. We found that a polaron picture could explain most of the $H$-dependent spectral changes. By comparing with the $H$-dependent spectral weight changes and $\epsilon (\omega)$ of Nd$_{1/2}$Sr$_{1/2}$MnO$_3$, which has the $CE$-type spin ordering, we showed that a dimensional crossover from a 2-dimensional to a 3-dimensional metal occurs in Pr$_{1/2}$Sr$_{1/2}$MnO$_3$., Comment: submitted to Phys. Rev. B

We investigated the temperature ($T=$ 15 $\sim $ 290 K) and the magnetic field ($H=$ 0 $\sim $ 17 T) dependent optical conductivity spectra of a charge/orbital ordered manganite, Nd$_{1/2}$Sr$_{1/2}$MnO$_3$. With variation of $T$ and $H$, large spectral weight changes were observed up to 4.0 eV. These spectral weight changes could be explained using the polaron picture. Interestingly, our results suggested that some local ordered state might remain above the charge ordering temperature, and that the charge/orbital melted state at a high magnetic field (i.e. at $H=$ 17 T and $% T=$ 4.2 K) should be a three dimensional ferromagnetic metal. We also investigated the first order phase transition from the charge/orbital ordered state to ferromagnetic metallic state using the $T$- and $H$% -dependent dielectric constants $\epsilon_1$. In the charge/orbital ordered insulating state, $\epsilon_1$ was positive and $d\epsilon_1/d\omega \approx 0$. With increasing $T$ and $H$, $\epsilon_1$ was increased up to the insulator-metal phase boundaries. And then, $\epsilon_1$ abruptly changed into negative and $d\epsilon_1/d\omega >0$, which was consistent with typical responses of a metal. Through the analysis of $% \epsilon_1$ using an effective medium approximation, we found that the melting of charge/orbital ordered states should occur through the percolation of ferromagnetic metal domains., Comment: submitted to Phys. Rev. B

We investigated optical properties of Pr_{0.5}Sr_{0.5}MnO_3, which has the A-type antiferromagnetic ordering at a low temperature. We found that T- dependence of spectral weight transfer shows a clear correlation with the magnetic phase transition. In comparison with the optical conductivity results of Nd_{0.5}Sr_{0.5}MnO_3, which has the CE-type antiferromagnetic charge ordering, we showed that optical properties of Pr_{0.5}Sr_{0.5}MnO_3 near the Neel temperature could be explained by a crossover from 3D to 2D metals. Details of spectral weight changes are consistent with the polaron picture., Comment: 11 pages, 4 figures, submitted to PRL at June 1

We investigated temperature dependent optical conductivity spectra of Nd0.7Sr0.3MnO3 single crystal. We found that polishing and surface scattering effects on the Nd0.7Sr0.3MnO3 crystal surfaces could significantly distort the optical responses, especially in the mid-infrared region. However, oxygen annealing and gold normalization processes seemed to remedy the distortions. We found that the spectral weight of Nd0.7Sr0.3MnO3 in the metallic state might be composed of a Drude carrier term and a strong incoherent mid-infrared absorptions. The temperature dependence of the spectral weight suggests that the electron-lattice coupling should be important in optical properties of colossal magnetoresistance manganites., Comment: 18 pages, 8 figures, submitted to PRB

Temperature and polarization dependent electronic structure of La1/2Sr3/2MnO4 were investigated by optical conductivity analyses. With decreasing temperature, for E//ab, a broad mid-infrared (MIR) peak of La1/2Sr3/2MnO4 becomes narrower and moves to the higher frequency, while that of Nd1/2Sr3/2MnO4 nearly temperature independent. We showed that the MIR peak in La1/2Sr3/2MnO4 originates from orbital ordering associated with CE-type magnetic ordering and that the Jahn-Teller distortion has a significant influence on the width and the position of the MIR peak., Comment: 10 pages, 4 figures

We investigated temperature dependent optical conductivity spectra of La_{7/8}Sr_{1/8}MnO_3. Its phonon bending mode starts to be splitted near a structural phase transition temperature. With further cooling, strength of a mid-infrared small polaron peak, which is located at 0.4 eV, becomes increased. These temperature dependent changes in the phonon spectra and the polaron absorption peaks were explained by a phase separation and a percolation-type transition., Comment: Revtex 12 pages, 5 figures, Submitted to Phys. Rev. B

Optical conductivity spectra of La_{0.7-y}Pr_{y}Ca_{0.3}MnO_3 were systematically investigated. For metallic samples, the spectral weight below 0.5 eV, whose magnitude can be represented by the effective carrier number N_{eff}(0.5 eV), increases as temperature becomes lower. Regardless of the Pr doping, all the measured values of N_{eff}(0.5 eV)/T_C fall into one scaling curve. This scaling behavior could be explained by the theoretical model by Roeder et al. [Phys. Rev. Lett. 76, 1356 (1996)], which includes spin double exchange and Jahn-Teller lattice coupling to holes. With the Pr doping, far-infrared conductivities were found to be suppressed, probably due to the Anderson localization., Comment: Latex 2e, 8 pages including 4 postscript figures, submitted at Apr 23

Temperature dependent optical conductivity spectra of a La0.7Ca0.3MnO3 (LCMO) sample were measured. In the metallic regime at very low temperatures, they clearly showed two types of absorption features, i.e., a sharp Drude peak and a broad mid-infrared absorption band, which could be explained as coherent and incoherent bands of a large lattice polaron. This elementary excitation in LCMO was found to be in a strong coupling regime and to have interactions with the spin degree of freedom., Comment: 4 pages and separate 4 figures