The occurrence at low temperatures of an ultrasharp field-induced transition in phase separated manganites is analyzed. Experimental results show that magnetization and specific heat step-like transitions below 5 K are correlated with an abrupt change of the sample temperature, which happens at a certain critical field. This temperature rise, a magnetocaloric effect, is interpreted as produced by the released energy at the transition point, and is the key to understand the existence of the abrupt field-induced transition. A qualitative analysis of the results suggests the existence of a critical growing rate of the ferromagnetic phase, beyond which an avalanche effect is triggered.
@article{arxiv.cond-mat/0308141,
title = {Abrupt field-induced transition triggered by magnetocaloric effect in phase-separated manganites},
author = {L. Ghivelder and R. S. Freitas and M. G. das Virgens and M. A. Continentino and H. Martinho and L. Granja and M. Quintero and G. Leyva and P. Levy and F. Parisi},
journal= {arXiv preprint arXiv:cond-mat/0308141},
year = {2009}
}
Comments
6 pages, 4 figures included. Acepted for publication in Phys. Rev. B