Properties of La_0.7Ca_0.3MnO₃ under extreme tensile strength studied using Monte Carlo simulations

In a recent groundbreaking experiment, membranes of the perovskite manganite La_0.7Ca_0.3MnO₃ (LCMO) deposited on a flexible polymer layer were strained up to 8% (S. S. Hong et al., Science 368, 71 (2020)), much more than achieved by regular strain induced by a rigid substrate. By increasing this strain a metal-insulator transition was reported. Here we reproduce the results of the experiments using Monte Carlo simulations of the two-orbital double-exchange model including Jahn-Teller distortions, at hole density x=1/3. The full phase diagram with varying temperature and Jahn-Teller coupling is presented. A metal-insulator transition is found in our simulations, between a ferromagnetic metallic state with uniform charge distribution and an insulator with diagonal charge stripes that retains its ferromagnetic character. In between the hole-rich diagonals, staggered orbital order occurs (C. S. and E. Dagotto, Phys. Rev. B 102, 035126 (2020)).