Magnetic polarons in the one-dimensional ferromagnetic Kondo model

The ferromagnetic Kondo model with classical corespins is studied via unbiased Monte Carlo simulations. We show that with realistic parameters for the manganites and at low temperatures, the double-exchange mechanism does not lead to phase separation in one-dimensional chains but rather stabilizes individual ferromagnetic polarons. Within the ferromagnetic polaron picture, the pseudogap in the one-particle spectral function Aₖ(ω) can easily be explained. Ferromagnetic polarons also clear up a seeming failure of the double-exchange mechanism in explaining the comparable bandwidths in the ferromagnetic and paramagnetic phase. For our analysis, we extend a simplified model, the finite-temperature uniform hopping approach (UHA), to include polarons. It can easily be evaluated numerically and provides a simple quantitative understanding of the physical features of the ferromagnetic Kondo model.