Anomalous phase separation in a correlated electron system: Machine-learning-enabled large-scale kinetic Monte Carlo simulations.

Zhang, Sheng; Zhang, Puhan; Chern, Gia-Wei · Proc Natl Acad Sci U S A · 2022

basic_science · Level V

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Abstract

SignificancePhase separation is crucial to the functionalities of many correlated electron materials with notable examples including colossal magnetoresistance in manganites and high-<i>T<sub>c</sub></i> superconductivity in cuprates. However, the nonequilibrium phase-separation dynamics in such systems are poorly understood theoretically, partly because the required multiscale modeling is computationally very demanding. With the aid of machine-learning methods, we have achieved large-scale dynamical simulations in a representative correlated electron system. We observe an unusual relaxation process that is beyond the framework of classical phase-ordering theories. We also uncover a correlation-induced freezing behavior, which could be a generic feature of phase separation in correlated electron systems.