Charge localization in disordered colossal-magnetoresistance manganites

The metallic or insulating nature of the paramagnetic phase of the colossal-magnetoresistance manganites is investigated via a double-exchange Hamiltonian with diagonal disorder. The mobility edge trajectory is determined with the transfer-matrix method. Density-of-states calculations indicate that random hopping alone is not sufficient to induce Anderson localization at the Fermi level with 20-30% doping. We argue that the metal-insulator transition is likely due to the formation of localized polarons from nonuniform extended states as the effective bandwidth is reduced by random hoppings and electron-electron interactions.