Charge and orbital order in half-doped manganites

We investigate the electronic properties and microscopic reasons of stability of the coexisting charge, magnetic and orbital ordering in half-doped manganites, using a model solved within the mean-field approximation. The Jahn-Teller terms which describe the orbital polarization at Mn3+ sites stabilize the observed charge exchange phase, and lead to strong charge anisotropy between the bridge and corner positions along ferromagnetic zigzag chains. (C) 2002 Elsevier Science B.V. All rights reserved.