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# The X-ray luminosities of Herbig-Haro objects

## 1 Introduction

More than two decades ago, Ortolani & D’Odorico (1980) detected the UV emission of the Herbig-Haro object HH 1 with the International Ultraviolet Explorer (IUE). This observation opened up the new possibility of carrying out ultraviolet observations of HH objects, which resulted in a large number of papers describing results obtained with IUE (see, e. g., Moro-Martín et al. 1996), the Hopkins Ultraviolet Telescope (Raymond et al. 1997) and the Hubble Space Telescope (HST, Curiel et al. 1995).

Very recently, Pravdo et al. (2001) have reported Chandra observations of HH 2 and Favata et al. (2002) have reported XMM-Newton observations of HH 154 which are the first X-ray detections ever of HH objects. Even though HH 2 and HH 154 are detected only in a marginal way, these observations open up the new possibility of analyzing the X-ray properties of HH objects. This is an exciting development in observations of outflows from young stars, because it gives us the possibility of detecting fast, non-radiative shocks which could be associated with the outflows but have not been previously detected. The results of future X-ray observations of HH objects, however, will depend on whether or not other HH objects are bright in the 0.1 - 10 keV window observed by Chandra.

In the present paper, we derive a simple, analytic model which gives the X-ray luminosity of a bow shock as a function of the flow parameters (§2). We then compare this analytic model with predictions obtained from axisymmetric simulations of the leading working surface of a jet (§3) in order to evaluate its accuracy. Finally, in §4 we compare the luminosity predicted from our model with the HH 2 observations of Pravdo et al. (2001), and suggest other objects which appear to be good candidates for future Chandra observations.

## 2 The analytic model

A simple estimate of the X-ray luminosity of an HH bow shock can be obtained as follows. We first assume that the X-ray luminosity is dominated by the contribution of the free-free emission of hydrogen, and that most of the free-free continuum photons come out in the X-ray wavelength range. Then, the X-ray emission per unit volume is given by the classical formula

$$\mathrm{\Lambda }_{ff}=1.85\times 10^{27}\mathrm{erg}\mathrm{cm}^3\mathrm{s}^1T^{1/2}n^2,$$
(1)
where the temperature $`T`$ and the number density $`n`$ (of H ions or of free electrons) are in cgs units (see, e. g., Osterbrock 1989, p. 53). In order to evaluate the errors introduced by neglecting the line emission, and by assuming that all of the free-free emission is emitted in the X-ray wavelength range, we have compared the radiated energy per unit volume given by equation (1) with the one predicted using the Chianti dataset and software (Dere et al. 2001, which includes the line emission, computed under the assumption of coronal ionization equilibrium) for the 0.3 to 10 keV photon energy range. Through this comparison, one obtains differences of factors of 2.5, 3.0, 1.1 and 1.2 at temperatures of $`10^5`$, $`10^6`$, $`10^{6.5}`$ and $`10^7`$ K, respectively, between the two emission coefficients.

We now assume that the X-ray emitting region corresponds to the head of the bow shock, in which the gas has a temperature and density of the order of the on-axis post-shock values. From the strong shock jump conditions, we then obtain

$$T1.5\times 10^5\mathrm{K}\left(\frac{v_{bs}}{100\mathrm{km}\mathrm{s}^1}\right)^2,$$
(2)
$$n4n_0,$$
(3)
where $`v_{bs}`$ is the velocity of the bow shock relative to the downstream material, and $`n_0`$ is the pre-bow shock number density.

Finally, we need an estimate of the volume of the emitting region. We will assume that the bow shock is created by a dense, approximately spherical “obstacle” (which would in practice correspond to the head of the HH jet) of radius $`r_b`$. For a non-radiative, high Mach number, $`\gamma =5/3`$ flow, the on-axis stand-off distance between the obstacle and the bow shock has a value $`\mathrm{\Delta }r0.2r_b`$ (see Van Dyke & Gordon 1959; Raga & Böhm 1987). For a radiative bow shock, however, the standoff distance has a value $`\mathrm{\Delta }rd_{cool}`$, as has been frequently stated in the literature, and tested in detail for bow shock flows by Raga et al. (1997).

The emitting volume $`V`$ can then be calculated in an approximate way as

$$V\frac{2\pi }{3}r_{b}^{}{}_{}{}^{3}\left[\left(1+\frac{\mathrm{\Delta }r}{r_b}\right)^31\right]2\pi r_{b}^{}{}_{}{}^{2}\mathrm{\Delta }r,$$
(4)
where the second equality corresponds to a first order Taylor expansion in $`\mathrm{\Delta }r/r_b`$. The volume given by equation (4) corresponds to the volume limited by two hemispheres of radii $`r_b`$ and $`r_b+\mathrm{\Delta }r`$. The on-axis standoff distance then has to be calculated as

$$\mathrm{\Delta }r=\mathrm{min}[0.2r_b,d_{cool}],$$
(5)
where the cooling distance $`d_{cool}`$ can be computed with the interpolation formula of Heathcote et al. (1998)

$$d_{cool}=2.24\times 10^{14}\mathrm{cm}\left(\frac{100\mathrm{cm}^3}{n_0}\right)\left(\frac{v_{bs}}{100\mathrm{km}\mathrm{s}^1}\right)^{4.5},$$
(6)
which fits the “fully preionized” plane parallel shock models of Hartigan et al. (1987) in the $`v_{bs}=150400`$ km s-1 shock velocity range with $`20`$ % accuracy.

Combining equations (1)-(6), we then obtain the following estimate of the X-ray luminosity $`L_x`$ of a bow shock :

$$L_x\mathrm{\Lambda }_{ff}\times V=\mathrm{min}[L_r,L_{nr}],$$
(7)
where

$$L_r=4.1\times 10^6L_{}\left(\frac{n_0}{100\mathrm{cm}^3}\right)\times $$

$$\left(\frac{r_b}{10^{16}\mathrm{cm}}\right)^2\left(\frac{v_{bs}}{100\mathrm{km}\mathrm{s}^1}\right)^{5.5},$$
(8)
$$L_{nr}=4.5\times 10^5L_{}\left(\frac{n_0}{100\mathrm{cm}^3}\right)^2\times $$

$$\left(\frac{r_b}{10^{16}\mathrm{cm}}\right)^3\left(\frac{v_{bs}}{100\mathrm{km}\mathrm{s}^1}\right).$$
(9)
## 3 Numerical simulations

In order to test the analytic model of §2, we have carried out numerical simulations of HH jets, and obtained predictions of the X-ray luminosities from the leading bow shock which can be directly compared with the analytic model of §2.

In order to compute the gasdynamic jet simulations, we have used an axisymmetric version of the adaptive grid yguazú-a code. This code has been described in detail by Raga et al. (2000), and tested with “starting jet” laboratory experiments by Raga et al. (2001). The version of the code that has been used integrates rate equations for all of the ions of H and He, and up to three times ionized C and O. The cooling processes associated with these ions are included, as well as a parametrized cooling for high temperatures. The details of the cooling functions and of the ionization, recombination and charge exchange processes which are included are given in the appendix of Raga et al. (2002).

The simulations have been carried out in a cylindrical, 4-level binary adaptive grid with a $`5\times 10^{18}`$ cm (axial) and $`6.25\times 10^{17}`$ (radial) spatial extent, and a maximum resolution of $`4.88\times 10^{15}`$ cm along both axes. An initially top hat jet is injected on the left boundary of the grid, and a reflection condition is applied outside the jet cross section.

We have run three models, which share the following parameters. The initially top-hat jet has a $`r_j=5\times 10^{16}`$ cm radius, number density $`n_j=10^4`$ cm-3 and temperature $`T_j=1000`$ K, and travels into a uniform environment of density $`n_{env}=400`$ cm-3 and temperature $`T_{env}=1000`$ K. The jet-to-environment density ratio therefore has a $`\beta ^2=25`$ value. Both the jet and the environment are initially neutral, except for C, which is singly ionized.

The three jet models differ in their jet velocities :

* M1 : this model has a $`v_j=850`$ km s-1 jet velocity. From the usual ram pressure balance argument, one can calculate the on-axis shock velocity of the leading bow shock as $`v_{bs}=\beta v_j/(1+\beta )=708`$ km s-1 (where $`\beta =\sqrt{n_j/n_{env}}=5`$, see above). For the parameters of this model, from equation (6) we obtain a $`d_{cool}=3.7\times 10^{17}\mathrm{cm}=7.5r_j`$ cooling distance. Therefore the stagnation region of the bow shock is non-radiative.
* M2 : this model has $`v_j=360`$ km s-1, resulting in an on-axis shock velocity $`v_{bs}=300`$ km s-1 for the leading bow shock and a $`d_{cool}=1.5\times `$ $`10^{15}`$ $`\mathrm{cm}=0.03r_j`$ cooling distance. Therefore, the head of the bow shock is radiative.
* M3 : this model has $`v_j=150`$ km s-1, resulting in an on-axis shock velocity $`v_{bs}=125`$ km s-1 for the leading bow shock. For these parameters, equation (6) gives a $`d_{cool}=1.3\times 10^{14}\mathrm{cm}=0.0025r_j`$ cooling distance. Because the shock velocity of the model is outside the range of validity of equation (6), this cooling distance differs by a factor of $`3`$ from the one given by Hartigan et al. (1987).

We should note that the cooling distances of the last two models are not appropriately resolved in our numerical simulations.

As an example of the results obtained from the computed jet models, in Figure 1 we show the density stratification of the jet head obtained from model M1 for a $`t=2000`$ yr integration time. From this Figure, we see that the dense, post-Mach disk jet material is ejected sideways, forming a cocoon which constitutes the “obstacle” which pushes the leading bow shock into the surrounding environment. Therefore, in order to compare the numerical simulations with the analytic model of §2, we associate the “radius of the obstacle” $`r_b`$ (see equation 4) with the cylindrical radius of the dense cocoon. We find that for the three computed models, the radius of the cocoon has oscillations of $`20`$% around a $`r_b=10^{17}`$ cm value. We therefore adopt this value in order to compare the X-ray luminosities predicted from the numerical simulations with the analytic model of §2.

Figure 2 shows the time-dependent X-ray luminosity of the heads of the jets computed from models M1, M2 and M3. The luminosities have been computed as follows. The frequency-dependent emission coefficient has been calculated using the Chianti data set and software (Dere et al. 2001), under the assumption of coronal ionization equilibrium and with solar abundances. This emission coefficient has then been integrated over energies ranging from 0.3 to 10 keV (in order to simulate Chandra observations), and over all of the volume of the computational domains of the jet models.

In Figure 2, we also show the values of $`L_x`$ obtained from our analytic model (see equations 7-9). For models M1 and M2, we obtain good agreement (within a factor of $`2`$) between the predictions from the numerical simulations and the analytic model.

For model M3, the $`L_x`$ values obtained from the numerical simulation range from a factor of $`4`$ to a factor of $`10`$ times the analytic prediction (see figure 2). This larger difference between the numerical and analytic predictions might be due to the fact that the cooling distance of model M3 is highly unresolved (see above).

We then conclude that the X-ray luminosities obtained from the numerical simulations and from the analytic model are in reasonably good agreement.

## 4 The X-ray luminosities of three bright HH objects

### 4.1 HH 2

This object has been marginally detected with Chandra by Pravdo et al. (2001), who estimated a (redenning corrected) X-ray luminosity of $`L_x1.3\times 10^4L_{}`$. The detected emission is associated with the HH 2H condensation.

HST images of HH 2H (Schwartz et al. 1993) show that this condensation has a high intensity, elongated structure extending more or less perpendicular to the outflow axis. The lateral extension of this structure is of $`2^{\prime \prime }.5`$, which corresponds to a physical size of $`1.7\times 10^{16}`$ cm (at a distance of 460 pc). We therefore have $`r_b8.5\times 10^{15}`$ cm.

For the shock velocity and pre-shock density, we adopt the values estimated for HH 2H by Hartigan et al. (1987). Following these authors, we set $`v_{bs}=150`$ km s-1 and $`n_0=500`$ cm-3.

From equation (8) we then obtain $`L_x=1.4\times 10^4L_{}`$. Therefore, the prediction obtained from our analytic model is in surprisingly good agreement with the HH 2H luminosity determined by Pravdo et al. (2001).

### 4.2 HH 154

HH 154 is a chain of aligned knots leading away from the L 1551 IRS 5 source. Favata et al. (2002) deduce that the X-ray emission that they detect comes from the high excitation knot D, for which they deduce (from previously published optical line ratios and line profiles) a $`v_{bs}200`$ km s-1 bow shock velocity. Favata et al. (2002) and Fridlund & Lizeau (1994, 1998) deduce an $`500`$ cm-3 density for the region upstream of knot D, and estimate that the density downstream of the knot has to be lower than this value by a factor of $`15`$ (taking the mean of the 10-20 range quoted by Fridlund & Lizeau 1998 for this factor). Therefore, we set $`n_0100`$ cm-3. Finally, from the HST images of Fridlund & Lizeau (1998), we see that knot D has a diameter of $`3^{\prime \prime }.3`$, corresponding to $`r_b=7.5\times 10^{15}`$ cm (at a distance of 150 pc).

With these parameters, from equation (8) we obtain $`L_x=1.0\times 10^4L_{}`$. This luminosity is in uncannilly good agreement with the $`8\times 10^5L_{}`$ X-ray luminosity which Favata et al. (2002) deduced from their XMM-Newton observations.

### 4.3 HH 80/81

The HH objects with the highest excitation spectra are HH 80 and 81. These objects (discovered by Reipurth & Graham 1988) are associated with a thermal radio jet which shows proper motions of up to $`1400`$ km s-1 (Martí et al. 1998).

HST images (Heathcote et al. 1998) show that HH 81 has an angular size of $`3^{\prime \prime }.5`$, corresponding to a physical size of $`8.9\times 10^{16}`$ cm (at a distance of 1700 pc). We therefore adopt $`r_b=4.5\times 10^{16}`$ cm. We also adopt the $`v_{bs}700`$ km s-1 and $`n_0400`$ cm-3 values deduced from the line widths and H$`\alpha `$ luminosity of HH 81 by Heathcote et al. (1988). Using these values, from equation (9) we obtain $`L_x=0.46L_{}`$.

In order to estimate whether or not this object can be detected with Chandra, we have to calculate the energy flux $`F_{HH81}`$ that would arrive at Earth. We use the distance of 1700 pc and the $`A_V=2.33`$ (corresponding to a $`N_H3.0\times 10^{21}`$ cm-2 neutral H column density) determined by Heathcote et al. (1998). If we consider the extinction at 1 keV, we obtain $`F_{HH81}2.5\times 10^{12}`$ erg s-1 cm-2, and if we use the extinction at 0.5 keV, we obtain $`F_{HH81}7.5\times 10^{15}`$ erg s-1 cm-2

Interestingly, the lower estimate that we have obtained for the flux that would be observed from HH 81 is an order of magnitude higher than the flux observed by Pravdo et al. (2001) for HH 2. Therefore, we conclude that HH 81 is a very good candidate for future Chandra observations.

## 5 Conclusions

We have derived a simple, analytic model for predicting the X-ray luminosity of HH bow shocks. We have tested this model against HH jet numerical simulations, showing that it is applicable for bow shocks with shock velocities in the $`120600`$ km s-1 range.

We have then applied the analytic model to obtain predictions of the X-ray luminosities of HH 2H, HH 154D and HH 81, and obtain the following results :

* the luminosity predicted for HH 2H is in good agreement with the Chandra observation of this object by Pravdo et al. (2001),
* the luminosity predicted for HH 154D is in good agreement with the XMM-Newton observation of this object by Favata et al. (2002),
* the X-ray luminosity predicted for HH 81 is a factor of $`1000`$ larger than the one of HH 2.

Because of the very large difference in X-ray luminosities predicted for HH 81 and for HH 2, even though HH 81 is a factor of $`3`$ more distant and more highly extinguished than HH 2, we expect it to be brighter than HH 2 by a factor of 10 to 100.

###### Acknowledgements.

The work of AR and PV was supported by the CONACyT grants 34566-E and 36572-E. ANC’s research was carried out at the Jet Propulsion Laboratory, California Institute of Technology, under a contract with NASA; and partially supported by NASA-APD Grant NRA0001-ADP-096.


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# Low frequency 1/𝑓 noise in doped manganite grain-boundary junctions

## I Introduction

Doped manganites have attained large interest in recent years because of the interesting interplay of charge, spin, orbital and structural degrees of freedom in these materials Salamon01  and their potential use in magnetoresistive devices. It was found early that the introduction of artificial grain boundaries (GB) into epitaxial manganite thin films leads to localized structural distortions at the GB entailing significant modifications of the magnetotransport properties of the GB Gubkin93a ; Hwang96 ; Gupta96 ; Mathur97 ; Steenbeck97 ; Klein99a ; Gross99a ; Hoefener00 ; Ziese99a . In particular, a significant increase of the low field magnetoresistance was found. Recently, in well-defined, individual GB junctions fabricated by depositing epitaxial manganite films on $`\mathrm{SrTiO}_3`$ bicrystal substrates, a large two-level magnetoresistance effect with a maximum tunneling magnetoresistance (TMR) of up to 300% at 4.2 K has been demonstrated at low applied fields of about 200 Oe Hoefener00 ; Philipp00 . These artificial GB junctions showed an almost ideal two-level resistance switching behavior with sharp transitions from the low to the high resistance state when the magnetic field was applied within the film plane parallel to the GB barrier. Thus, manganite GB junctions represent ferromagnetic (FM) tunnel junctions with very high TMR values and a very simple fabrication process. On the other hand, the charge transport mechanism across the GB barrier has not yet been unambiguously clarified. In well-defined bicrystal GB junctions defined by growing epitaxial manganite films on $`\mathrm{SrTiO}_3`$ bicrystal substrates, the GB barrier is formed by a straight distorted GB interface with a width of only a few nm as shown by transmission electron microscopy Gross99a ; Gross00 ; Wiedenhorst00 . After annealing in oxygen atmosphere, individual GB junctions with large TMR values have been achieved Mathur97 ; Steenbeck97 ; Gross99a ; Hoefener00 ; Philipp00 .

Up to now, several theoretical models have been proposed Klein99a ; Gross99a ; Hoefener00 ; Ziese99a ; Evetts98a ; Coey98a ; Guinea98a  to describe the magnetotransport properties of the manganite GB junctions. However, the proposed models are controversial and a thorough understanding of the magnetotransport properties of the GB junctions is still lacking what is mainly related to the unknown structural and magnetic properties of the GB barrier. Whereas Hwang et al. Hwang96  proposed a model based on spin-polarized tunneling between ferromagnetic grains through an insulating GB barrier, Evetts et al. Evetts98a  proposed the polarization of the GB region by adjacent magnetically soft grains. Later on, Guinea Guinea98a  pointed out that probably tunneling via paramagnetic impurity states in the GB barrier plays an important role and Ziese Ziese99a  suggested a description of the transport characteristics of GB based on tunneling via magnetically ordered states in the barrier. Our recent systematic study of the magnetotransport properties of well-defined individual bicrystal GB junctions suggested a multi-step inelastic tunneling process via magnetic impurity states within a disordered GB barrier Klein99a ; Gross99a ; Hoefener00 ; Zhang98 . Within this model both the nonlinear current-voltage characteristics and the strong temperature and voltage dependence of the tunneling magnetoresistance could be naturally explained. In our model, strain and structural distortions at the GB interface result in a localization of charge carriers and thereby a suppression of the ferromagnetic double exchange resulting in an insulating GB barrier with a large density of magnetic impurity states. We also pointed out that band bending effects may play an important role resulting in a depletion layer at the GB interface below the Curie temperature of the ferromagnetic grain Gross99a .

Here, we report on a systematic analysis of the low frequency $`1/f`$ noise of individual $`\mathrm{La}_{2/3}\mathrm{Ca}_{1/3}\mathrm{MnO}_{3\delta }`$ bicrystal GB junctions to further clarify the transport mechanism across the GB interface. The investigation of the low frequency $`1/f`$ noise properties already has proven to be a valuable tool to provide more insight into transport mechanisms across grain boundaries in the structurally related cuprate superconductors Marx95a ; Marx99 ; Kemen99 . Therefore, the detailed evaluation of the $`1/f`$ noise of manganite GB junctions is highly desirable both from the basic physics and the application point of view.

For epitaxial thin films of the doped manganites there have been several reports on a large low frequency $`1/f`$ noise Alers96 ; Lisauskas99 ; Hardner97 ; Rajeswari96 ; Rajeswari98 . In particular, a large noise peak close to the Curie temperature $`T_C`$ has been interpreted in terms of a percolative nature of the transition between charge ordered insulating and ferromagnetic metallic states Podzorov00 ; Anane00 . However, Reutler et al. Reutler00  showed that the noise peak and the unusually large noise level is not an intrinsic property of the doped manganite. They found a strong coupling between local magnetic disorder and structural disorder introduced by strain effects due to lattice mismatch between film and substrate. In particular, the noise peak and the large $`1/f`$ noise level was found to be absent in high quality, strain free epitaxial films. Palanisami et al. Palanisami01  suggested two different mechanisms for the noise in manganite films: fluctuations between metallic and insulating phases on the one hand and magnetic orientation fluctuations (domain wall effects) on the other hand. Non-gaussian properties of the noise together with random telegraph signals were taken as an experimental hint to phase segregation in the colossal magnetoresistance (CMR) materials Raquet00 ; Merithew00 . On the other hand, random telegraph signals observed close to $`T_C`$ were taken as evidence for a domain-wall-motion picture of the kinetics of the responsible two-level system (TLS) Hess01 .

In contrast to epitaxial thin films there are almost no experimental data on the noise properties of grain boundaries in the doped manganites. Recently, Mathieu et al. investigated the zero-field low frequency noise in GB junctions in $`\mathrm{La}_{2/3}\mathrm{Ca}_{1/3}\mathrm{MnO}_{3\delta }`$ Mathieu01  below the ferromagnetic transition temperature as well as the magnetic field dependence of the noise. They concluded that the low-field noise was due to the multi-domain structure neighboring the GB i.e. of magnetic origin. Additional Lorentzian contributions were attributed to thermally activated domain wall motion in the domain configuration close to the GB.

In this article we present a systematic study of the low frequency $`1/f`$ noise in individual grain boundary junctions formed in $`\mathrm{La}_{0.67}\mathrm{Ca}_{0.33}\mathrm{MnO}_3`$ films. In particular, we discuss the dependence of the measured noise on bias current, temperature and applied magnetic field. Our results show that below $`T_C`$ the noise is dominated by the GB and not by the adjacent grains. The analysis of the noise characteristics shows that the GB noise is due to localized states with fluctuating magnetic moments in a strongly disordered GB barrier. At the lowest temperatures ($`4.2`$ K) additional Lorentzian contributions show up in the noise spectra. These Lorentzians are most likely due to an ensemble of interacting magnetic impurity states giving rise to a simultaneous switching of their magnetic moments.

## II Sample preparation and experimental techniques

To achieve well-defined individual manganite grain boundary junctions (GBJs) first about 80 nm thick $`\mathrm{La}_{2/3}\mathrm{Ca}_{1/3}\mathrm{MnO}_{3\delta }`$ films were grown by pulsed laser deposition on symmetrical  tilt $`\mathrm{SrTiO}_3`$ bicrystal substrates with a misorientation angle of 24. For details of the preparation process cf. Ref. Gross00 . The $`\mathrm{La}_{2/3}\mathrm{Ca}_{1/3}\mathrm{MnO}_{3\delta }`$ films typically had a Curie temperature $`T_C=210`$ K. After film deposition the films were annealed *ex-situ* at 950C in pure oxygen atmosphere. Then, typically 30 $`\mu `$m wide microbrigdes straddling the grain boundary as well as the current and voltage leads are patterned into the biepitaxial $`\mathrm{La}_{2/3}\mathrm{Ca}_{1/3}\mathrm{MnO}_{3\delta }`$ films using optical lithography and Ar ion beam etching. For comparison, microbridges of the same spatial dimension that are not positioned across the grain boundary were patterned into the epitaxial film. A sketch of the sample geometry is shown in the inset of Fig. 1a. The GBJs fabricated in this way were characterized by measuring the current-voltage characteristics (IVCs) as a function of temperature and applied magnetic field. After the annealing process the GBJs show an almost perfect two-level resistance switching behavior with sharp transitions between the low and high resistance level as already has been reported recently Philipp00 .

The noise properties of the GBJs were measured by biasing the junctions at a constant current $`I_b`$ and measuring the low frequency voltage fluctuations superimposed on the resulting junction voltage. The voltage fluctuations were amplified by low-noise amplifiers and subsequently processed by a digital spectrum analyzer. In this way noise spectra have been taken in the frequency range from 1 Hz to 100 kHz. The measurements were performed as a function of temperature (4.2 to 300 K) and applied magnetic field (up to 12 T). The magnetic field always was applied within in the film plane parallel to the GB barrier. Great care has been taken of the electromagnetic shielding of the sample during the noise measurements.

In the following we will quantify the measured voltage noise power by the frequency independent normalized voltage noise power

$$\mathrm{\Gamma }=\frac{S_V}{V^2}\times f^\alpha .$$
(1)
Here, $`S_V`$ is the spectral density of the voltage fluctuations and the exponent $`\alpha `$ usually is close to unity. Below, we will usually plot the octave integral

$$P_{\mathrm{octave}}=\underset{f_1}{\overset{2f_1}{}}\frac{S_V}{V^2}𝑑f.$$
(2)
For $`S_V1/f`$ we have $`P_{\mathrm{octave}}=\mathrm{\Gamma }\mathrm{ln}2`$.

## III Experimental results and discussion

### III.1 Transport and noise data

We first discuss the electrical transport properties of the GBJs. Typical current-voltage characteristics (IVCs) of a $`\mathrm{La}_{2/3}\mathrm{Ca}_{1/3}\mathrm{MnO}_{3\delta }`$ GBJ are shown in Fig. 1a. For the parallel magnetization direction in the electrodes the highly nonlinear IVCs can be accurately described within the Glazman-Matveev (GM) model Glazman88  for all temperatures below $`T_C`$. Within the GM model the transport of charge carriers across a barrier containing a significant number of defect states is mediated both by elastic tunneling (direct or resonant tunneling via a single impurity state) and by inelastic tunneling processes via two and more defect states. Within this model the IVCs can be expressed by

$$I=G_1V+G_2V^{7/3}+G_3V^{7/2}+\mathrm{},$$
(3)
where $`G_1`$ is the elastic contribution of direct and resonant tunneling via a single localized state and $`G_2,G_3,\mathrm{}`$ give the inelastic contribution to the total current from tunneling involving $`2,3,\mathrm{}`$ impurity states. The solid lines in Fig. 1a represent fits of Eq.(3) to the experimental data taking into account tunneling channels up to $`n=3`$ localized states Hoefener00 . Channels with $`n>3`$ are found to give only negligible contributions. For the antiparallel magnetization configuration the GM model also describes the IVCs at $`T40`$ K amazingly well. We note, however, that for other temperatures the agreement with the GM prediction for the antiparallel configuration was not as perfect as shown in Fig. 1a.

In Fig. 1b we show the resistance versus applied magnetic field curve for the magnetic field applied within the film plane parallel to the grain boundary. As has been discussed in detail elsewhere Philipp00 , for this field direction the grain boundary junctions show an almost ideal rectangular shaped switching behavior between the low resistance state with parallel and the high resistance state with antiparallel magnetization orientation in the junction electrodes.

We next discuss the noise data. Figure 2 shows the temperature dependence of the normalized octave noise power $`P_{\mathrm{octave}}`$ for two $`\mathrm{La}_{2/3}\mathrm{Ca}_{1/3}\mathrm{MnO}_{3\delta }`$ microbrigdes of similar geometry. Whereas one microbridge is straddling the GB, i.e. contains an individual GBJ, the other is not positioned across the GB, i.e. does not contain a GBJ. By comparing the noise data of these two microbridges we can clearly identify the contribution of the GBJ to the measured noise. The $`1/f`$ noise for the microbridge with the GBJ is rapidly increasing with decreasing temperature for $`T<220`$ K. In contrast, the noise of the microbridge without GBJ is almost temperature independent except for a peak close to $`T_C`$. We recently have shown that this noise peak can be suppressed by a small applied magnetic field and is related most likely to magnetic fluctuations at the paramagnetic to ferromagnetic transition in the doped manganites Reutler00 . The key result of Figure 2 is the fact that below $`T_C`$ the $`1/f`$ noise power of the microbridge with GBJ is orders of magnitude larger than the noise power of the epitaxial film. That is, for the microbridge with GBJ the measured noise can be attributed to the GBJ alone, since the additional noise of the adjacent grains is negligible small.

Although we do not want to discuss the details of the noise of the epitaxial $`\mathrm{La}_{2/3}\mathrm{Ca}_{1/3}\mathrm{MnO}_{3\delta }`$ film, we briefly compare the noise data of the epitaxial film shown in Figure 2 to those reported in our previous study Reutler00 . In Ref. Reutler00  we have analyzed the low frequency noise in highly strained $`\mathrm{La}_{2/3}\mathrm{Ca}_{1/3}\mathrm{MnO}_{3\delta }`$ films grown on SrTiO3 substrates. The magnitude of the noise measured for these strained films is much larger than that measured for the $`\mathrm{La}_{2/3}\mathrm{Ca}_{1/3}\mathrm{MnO}_{3\delta }`$ films of our present study, although the $`\mathrm{La}_{2/3}\mathrm{Ca}_{1/3}\mathrm{MnO}_{3\delta }`$ films were grown on the same substrate (SrTiO3) with the same lattice mismatch. These different characteristics originate in the post-deposition annealing process applied to the films of the present study. This annealing process results in a significant release of the epitaxial strain and, in turn, in a reduction of the noise amplitude. This is in agreement with our recent study, where we have shown that the noise amplitude in strained $`\mathrm{La}_{2/3}\mathrm{Ca}_{1/3}\mathrm{MnO}_{3\delta }`$ films is by many orders of magnitude larger than in almost strain free films grown on NdGaO3 substrates Reutler00 . The effect of a post-deposition thermal process on the noise properties of strained manganite films has also been discussed in Ref. Rajeswari98 .

Figure 3 shows the dependence of normalized octave noise power $`P_{\mathrm{octave}}`$ on a magnetic field applied within the film plane parallel to the GB for different values of the bias current $`I_b`$. Figure 3 shows two experimental facts. First, the noise power decreases with increasing bias current for all applied fields for $`I_b10`$$`\mu `$A. Second, the noise power decreases with increasing magnetic field for bias current values below 500 $`\mu `$A. Whereas for $`I_b100`$$`\mu `$A the noise decreases by more than one order of magnitude by increasing the magnetic field up to 12 T, for $`I_b100`$$`\mu `$A the noise is only weakly dependent on the applied magnetic field.

Figure 4 shows the detailed dependence of the normalized noise power $`P_{\mathrm{octave}}`$ on the bias current $`I_b`$ for both the parallel and antiparallel magnetization direction in the GBJ electrodes at $`T=40`$ K. It is evident that both for the parallel and antiparallel magnetization orientation there is only a very weak bias current dependence of the normalized noise power for small bias currents followed by a rapid decrease of $`P_{\mathrm{octave}}`$ at large bias current values. As illustrated in the inset of Fig. 4 the noise power $`f\times S_V(I_b)`$ shows a nonlinear dependence on the bias current.

### III.2 Model considerations

In the following we will argue that both the dc electrical transport and the low frequency noise properties can be consistently understood in a junction model assuming a strongly distorted region at the GB containing a large number of localized states/traps with fluctuating magnetic moments. A sketch of this junction model is shown in Figure 5a.

It is well known from the study of GBs in other perovskite materials (e.g. cuprate superconductors Gross94 ; Gross97 ) that strain, structural disorder and oxygen deficiency are important factors having a strong impact on the electrical transport properties. Figure 5b shows a high resolution transmission electron microscopy (HR-TEM) micograph of a symmetrical 36.8  tilt GB in a $`\mathrm{La}_{2/3}\mathrm{Ca}_{1/3}\mathrm{MnO}_{3\delta }`$ film deposited on a SrTiO3 bicrystal substrate Gross00 . It is obvious that the grain boundary region is clean without any secondary phases and that the lattice distortions are confined to within a few lattice spacings. This is very similar to GBs in the cuprate superconductors, where the boundaries also were found to be clean without any secondary phases and with the lattice distortions to be confined within 1-2 lattice spacings Chisholm91a ; Kabius94a ; Seo95a . However, the grain boundaries in doped manganite epitaxial films are almost as straight as the GB in the underlying SrTiO3 bicrystal substrate. This is in clear contrast to GBs in the cuprate suberconductors that are strongly facetted Kabius94a ; Seo95a . It is very likely that this difference is related to the different growth modes of the cuprate and manganite thin films. Whereas the cuprates show a pronounced island growth with the islands growing across the substrate grain boundary resulting in strong facetting, the manganites show a molecular layer-by-layer growth mode Gross00 . In this growth mode it is expected that the grain boundary in the film follows exactly that of the substrate. We also have preliminary results that the microstructure of GBs in the manganites significantly depends on the deposition technique (e.g. laser-MBE, sputtering), the lattice mismatch between the film and the substrate and post-deposition annealing processes. However, more HR-TEM work is required for a detailed clarification of this issue.

For the cuprate GBs either a description in terms of a space-wise metal insulator transition at the grain boundary or in terms of band bending effects Mannhart96a ; Mannhart98a  lead to a description of the GB as composed of an insulating layer at the barrier region which due to strain and structural disorder most likely contains a high density of localized defect states. Because of the structural affinity of the cuprate superconductors and the doped manganites it is very likely that also for these ferromagnetic junctions the transport properties are determined by an insulating tunnel barrier containing a large density of localized states Gross99a . Furthermore, there is already strong evidence for the presence of a significant density of localized states in the barrier from the fact that the current-voltage characteristics of the manganite GBJs can be very well described within the GM model (c.f. fig 1). Further evidence comes from the strong temperature and voltage dependence of the low field tunneling magnetoresistance Hoefener00 . Based on this experimental evidence we recently have proposed that the magnetotransport in manganite GBJs is determined by multi-step inelastic tunneling via magnetic impurity states within a disordered insulating GB barrier Klein99a ; Gross99a ; Hoefener00 .

Based on the model assumption of a large number of localized states within an insulating GB barrier there are two possible mechanisms which may be responsible for the observed low frequency voltage fluctuations. Firstly, the localized defect states are capable of trapping and releasing charge carriers. This charge carrier trapping and release processes lead to local variations of the barrier height and, thus, to fluctuations of the tunneling conductance. Furthermore, the magnetic field dependence of the noise (c.f. below) suggests that the charge traps are associated with a magnetic moment with a fluctuating orientation. Then, both the trapping and release of the charge carriers and, hence, the charge transport between the highly spin polarized electrodes depend on the local magnetic moment of the charge traps. Since the trapping and releases process depends on the relative orientation of the magnetic moment of the trap and the electrode magnetization, fluctuations of the direction of the magnetic moments of the charge traps strongly influence the local barrier transparency. A second mechanism giving rise to low frequency noise is related to coupling between the localized magnetic moments $`𝐒_L`$ of the localized states and the spin $`𝐬`$ of the tunneling electrons. Within the simplest approximation this coupling gives rise to an additional potential energy $`U(\alpha )=J𝐒_L𝐬=JS_Ls\mathrm{cos}\alpha `$, where $`J`$ is the coupling constant and $`\alpha `$ the angle between the localized moment and the electron spin. This additional energy, which is fluctuating with fluctuating orientation of the localized magnetic moments can be viewed as a fluctuation of the local barrier height.

Within the model of local barrier height fluctuations the dependence of the normalized voltage noise power $`P_{\mathrm{octave}}`$ on the bias current can be described within a small signal analysis based on the GM model. Doing so, we assume that the voltage fluctuations are caused by fluctuations of both the elastic and inelastic current contributions due to temporal variations of the local barrier height. Considering fluctuations of the elastic $`G_1`$ and inelastic $`G_2`$ and $`G_3`$ term, Eq. (3) gives for the small signal voltage fluctuation

$`\delta V`$ $``$ $`{\displaystyle \frac{V}{G_1}}\delta G_1+{\displaystyle \frac{V}{G_2}}\delta G_2+{\displaystyle \frac{V}{G_3}}\delta G_3+\mathrm{}`$
$``$ $`V{\displaystyle \frac{\delta G_1}{\stackrel{~}{G}}}+V^{7/3}{\displaystyle \frac{\delta G_2}{\stackrel{~}{G}}}+V^{7/2}{\displaystyle \frac{\delta G_3}{\stackrel{~}{G}}},`$
where $`\stackrel{~}{G}=[G_1+\frac{7}{3}G_2V^{4/3}+\frac{7}{2}G_3V^{5/2}]`$ roughly corresponds to the total tunneling conductance. For independent fluctuations $`\delta G_1`$, $`\delta G_2`$ and $`\delta G_3`$, the normalized voltage noise

$$\frac{S_V}{V^2}=\frac{S_{G_1}}{\stackrel{~}{G}^2}+V^{8/3}\frac{S_{G_2}}{\stackrel{~}{G}^2}+V^5\frac{S_{G_3}}{\stackrel{~}{G}^2}$$
(5)
is determined by the normalized fluctuations $`S_{G_1}/\stackrel{~}{G}^2=(\delta G_1/\stackrel{~}{G})^2`$, $`S_{G_2}/\stackrel{~}{G}^2=(\delta G_2/\stackrel{~}{G})^2`$ and $`S_{G_3}/\stackrel{~}{G}^2=(\delta G_3/\stackrel{~}{G})^2`$ of the GM coefficients.

Analyzing Eqs (III.2) and (5) we can conclude the following: At low bias current (junction voltage) the elastic tunneling current is dominating and we can neglect the $`S_{G_2}`$ and $`S_{G_3}`$ terms and furthermore can use the approximation $`\stackrel{~}{G}G_1`$. Hence, for low bias current we expect $`S_V/V^2S_{G_1}/G_1^2`$, that is, a normalized noise power independent of the bias current (junction voltage). With increasing bias current (junction voltage) the inelastic tunneling contribution no longer can be neglected. This results in an increase of $`\stackrel{~}{G}`$ with increasing voltage and, hence, in an overall decrease of the of $`S_V/V^21/\stackrel{~}{G}^2`$, even if the noise contributions of the inelastic channels increase with increasing voltage. As shown in Fig. 4 this behavior expected from our model consideration is in good qualitativ agreement with the measured data.

We even can go further and fit the data by Eq. (5). The solid lines in Fig. 4 are fits of Eq. (5) to the experimental data taking into account only fluctuations of the elastic $`G_1`$ and the first inelastic $`G_2`$ term. That is, $`S_{G_1}`$ and $`S_{G_2}`$ have been used as fit parameters, the term $`S_{G_3}`$ has been neglected to keep the number of fitting parameters minimum. We note that the GM coefficients $`G_1,G_2`$ and $`G_3`$ entering $`\stackrel{~}{G}`$ are obtained by fitting the current-voltage characteristics by the GM model prediction and therefore are fixed parameters in the fit of the noise data. Figure 4 shows that the small signal noise analysis based on the GM model is in good agreement with the experimental data for parallel magnetization alignment in the junction electrodes. The values for the normalized fluctuations in the elastic channel $`S_{G_1}/G_1^210^7`$ obtained from the numerical fits can be compared to the noise data of GBJs in cuprate superconductors, since $`(\delta G/G)^2=(\delta R/R)^2`$, where $`\delta R/R`$ are the normalized junction resistance fluctuations Marx97 . The normalized $`G_1`$ fluctuations nicely follow the scaling discussed in Ref. Marx97  for the cuprate superconductors. This scaling behavior has been discussed in terms of a constant density of trapping centers in the cuprate GBJs. Therefore the noise data of the manganite GBJs give further evidence of the close similarity to cuprate GBJs and suggest a similiar density of the noise centers in both junction types. Furthermore, $`S_{G_1}`$ and $`S_{G_2}`$ are found to depend only weakly on temperature in the investigated temperatur range below 80 K..

For the antiparallel magnetization orientation in the junction electrodes the modeling of the noise data by a small signal noise analysis based on the GM model is less convincing. However, Fig. 4 shows that a similar overall dependence of the normalized noise power on the bias current is observed for the antiparallel magnetization orientation. This is expected if we suppose that we can use the simple Jullière model Julliere75a  to describe the ferromagnetic tunnel junction. Within this model the tunneling current is given by the tunneling matrix element and the density of states $`N_{}(E_F)`$ of the two spin directions at the Fermi level in the junction electrodes. Going from the parallel to the antiparallel configuration the tunneling matrix element stays the same. However, for a material with finite spin polarization the density of states $`N_{},_{}(E_F)`$ for the spin-up and spin-down electrons is changed. Since in the elastic tunneling process the spin direction is conserved, a reduction of $`G_1`$ and $`S_{G_1}`$ is expected going from the parallel to the antiparallel magnetization orientation. It has been shown recently Hoefener00  that in the inelastic tunneling processes the spin direction does not seem to be conserved in manganite GBJs. Therefore, no reduction of $`G_2`$ and $`G_3`$ as well as $`S_{G_2}`$ is expected going from the parallel to the antiparallel magnetization orientation. Then, according to Eq. (5) we expect a slightly reduced value of $`S_V/V^2`$ and a similar functional dependence on the bias current (junction voltage). This is in qualitative agreement with the experimental data. We note, however, that the Jullière model certainly is too simple to describe the junction behavior in full detail. In particular, the assumption of a voltage independent density of states for the two spin directions may be an insufficient approximation. Recently, it has been shown that band structure effects give rise to voltage-dependent currents that conserve spin Cabrera02 . Summarizing our discussion we can conclude that our simple model based on a insulating tunneling barrier containing a high density of localized defect states already describes (at least for the parallel magnetization orientation) the measured noise data in a sufficient way. In order to get an even better agreement more sophisticated models have to be taken into consideration.

We now discuss the dependence of $`\mathrm{\Gamma }`$ or, equivalently, $`P_{\mathrm{octave}}`$ on temperature. As shown by Figure 2, we observe an increase of $`P_{\mathrm{octave}}`$ with decreasing temperature. This is expected within our model due to the increase of the spin polarization in the junction electrodes with decreasing temperature Hoefener00 . In this case the fluctuating orientation of the localized magnetic moments within the GB barrier result in increasing fluctuations of the local barrier height. Whereas for a random orientation of the electron spin (zero spin polarization) a change of the direction of the local magnetic moments does not change anything and hence does not influence the tunneling probability, for a full orientation of the electron spins (100% spin polarization) each orientation of the localized magnetic moment corresponds to a different potential energy $`U_L=J𝐒_L𝐬`$ and hence a different local barrier height. That is with increasing spin polarization the fluctuations of the orientation of the localized moments results in increasing fluctuations of the local barrier height. We note that judging from the evaluation of the IVCs within the GM model the average barrier transparency is almost independent of temperature.

We next discuss the dependence of $`P_{\mathrm{octave}}`$ on the applied magnetic field. Applying a magnetic field was found to continuously decrease the junction noise up to 12 T for bias currents $`500`$$`mu`$A as shown in Fig. 3. This can be explained within the proposed model in a straightforward way. The applied magnetic field tends to align the localized magnetic moments of the charge traps in the barrier region and thus reduces the fluctuations of the potential energy $`U_L=J𝐒_L𝐬`$ and, hence, the fluctuations of the local barrier height. We note, however, that in order to explain the magnetic field dependence of the noise power up to the largest applied field of 12 T (see Fig. 3) the fluctuating magnetic moments associated with the localized states cannot be considered as free moments but rather as (weakly) interacting moments forming a spin glass like state. It is well known that the physics of the doped manganites is determined by a competition of ferromagnetic double exchange and antiferromagnetic superexchange between neighboring Mn ions, which sensitively depends on doping as well as structural disorder and bond angles. Of course, for bulk $`\mathrm{La}_{2/3}\mathrm{Ca}_{1/3}\mathrm{MnO}_{3\delta }`$ the ferromagnetic double exchange is dominating. However, for the structurally distorted GB region there is certainly a strongly suppressed double exchange resulting in locally ferromagnetic and antiferromagnetic exchange Ziese98 . Because of this distorted nature of the GB it is plausible to assume that there is an arrangement of interacting magnetic moments strongly resembling a spin glass in the GB barrier.

We finally note that a spin polarized bias current of about 100 $`\mu `$A corresponding to a current density of about $`10^3`$ A/cm2 flowing across the GB may result in a nonvanishing orientation of the localized magnetic moments. That is, in this scenario the spin polarized current is expected to have the same effect as an applied magnetic field, namely to reduce the low frequency noise. A reduction of the noise with increasing bias current has indeed been observed (see Fig. 4) but attributed above within the GM model to an increase of the inelastic tunneling current with increasing bias current (junction voltage). Since the functional form of the bias current dependence of the noise fits well to the GM model based explanation, we conclude that the orientation effect of the spin polarized current, although present, is small.

At low temperature ($`T=4.2`$ K) we observed additional Lorentzian contributions to the low frequency $`1/f`$ noise as illustrated in Fig. 6. In contrast to the experiments in Refs. Mathieu01 ; Ingvarsson99 ; Ingvarsson00  these Lorentzians displayed various characteristic properties that are in obvious contradiction to the assumption of domain wall motion. First, we observe an evolution of the Lorentzians in time both at zero magnetic field (Fig. 6a) and at an applied magnetic field of $`\mu _0H=12`$ T (Fig. 6b). Second, as shown in Fig. 6c) some Lorentzian components were found to be completely unaffected by applying a magnetic field as large as several hundred mT. Because of this ambiguous dependence on both time and magnetic field we suppose that the Lorentzians are due to an ensemble of interacting localized magnetic moments. The interaction between the moments leads to simultaneous switching of their direction between a discrete number of orientations. Random switching of the magnetization of such an ensemble between *two* distinct directions thus defines a two level system giving rise to random telegraph noise with a Lorentzian power spectrum. Furthermore, the independence of the Lorentzian contribution on the magnetic field shown in Fig. 6 also provides clear evidence against domain fluctuations in the junction electrodes as the origin of GBJ noise.

To further clarify the magnetic properties of the barrier region we have investigated the magnetic field dependence of the junction resistance down to 2 K and up to 16 T. Recently, in Refs. Klein99a ; Gross99a  the distorted barrier has been modeled as a paramagnetic (PM) region even below the Curie temperature $`T_C`$ of the doped manganite, since the ferromagnetic double exchange is suppressed in the distorted GB layer. Since according to theoretical predictions Furukawa97  the paramagnetic insulator to ferromagnetic metal transition in the junction electrodes is expected to result in a large shift of the chemical potential, it has been argued that considerable band bending effects occur at the GB interface below $`T_C`$. These band bending effects lead to a depletion of the paramagnetic GB layer. The width $`t`$ of this depletion layer is a function of the magnetization difference $`\mathrm{\Delta }M=M_{\mathrm{FM}}M_{\mathrm{PM}}`$ of the FM electrodes and the PM barrier with $`t\mathrm{\Delta }M`$ Klein99a ; Gross99a ; Furukawa97 . At low temperature and fields above the coercive field the magnetization of the ferromagnetic electrodes can be assumed constant and we have $`t\mathrm{\Delta }MM_{\mathrm{PM}}`$. The magnetization of the PM layer is determined by the Brillouin function, which is a function of $`H/T`$. Then, we expect $`\mathrm{\Delta }Mf(H/T)`$ and, hence, $`tf(H/T)`$. Then, the junction resistance $`R\mathrm{exp}(t)`$ is expected to follow $`R\mathrm{exp}[f(H/T)]`$. This is clearly not observed experimentally as shown in Fig. 7, where the two $`R(H)`$ curves recorded at different temperatures do not coincide when plotted versus $`H/T`$. Furthermore, for $`H/T1`$ the Brillouin function can be approximated by $`H/T`$. In this case $`R\mathrm{exp}(H/T)`$ is expected. Such behavior has indeed been reported Klein99a  an also is shown in Fig. 7). However, for a paramagnetic GB layer at very low temperature and very high fields the $`R\mathrm{exp}(H/T)`$ behavior should be no longer valid, since the Brillouin function no longer can be approximated by $`H/T`$. In contrast, the magnetization of the paramagnetic GB barrier is expected to saturate resulting in a saturation of the junction resistance. As shown by Fig. 7 this is clearly not observed in our experiments. Summarizing we can conclude that the absence of a $`H/T`$ scaling of the measured $`R(H)`$ curves and of any saturation of the junction resistance at very high magnetic fields even at 2.3 K provides further evidence that the barrier region rather resembles a spin glass than a paramagnetic material in agreement with the the above conclusions drawn from the analysis of the noise data.

We also would briefly like to compare our noise data to that already available in literature. Recently, Mathieu et al. Mathieu01  investigated the $`1/f`$ noise of GB junctions in $`\mathrm{La}_{0.7}\mathrm{Sr}_{0.3}\mathrm{MnO}_3`$ thin films. In these experiments the low frequency noise was found to show the same dependence on an applied magnetic field as the dc resistance. Therefore, the authors suggested that the measured low field noise is of magnetic origin related to domain fluctuations and domain wall motion in a multi-domain state neighboring the GB region. They further argued that the origin of the observed additional Lorentzian components in the low frequency noise are caused by thermally activated domain wall motion in this domain configuration.

Our noise data do not support this picture of a fluctuating magnetic state in the junction electrodes adjacent to the GB. The accurate description of both the IVCs and the noise data within the GM model strongly supports a tunneling-like mechanism for the charge transport and gives strong evidence that the low frequency noise in the manganite GB junctions is caused by the trapping and release of charge carriers in localized defect states within the GB barrier. Further support for the tunnel junction model stems from the $`R(H)`$ dependencies Philipp00 . Here, for our GBJs an ideal two-level resistance switching with sharp transition from the low to the high resistance state is observed with the magnetic field applied parallel to the GB barrier resembling the rectangular shaped $`R(H)`$ characteristics observed in TMR devices based on transition metals Jansen00 . Such $`R(H)`$ dependencies would not be expected in the presence of a multi-domain state in the junction electrodes. Furthermore, the normalized octave noise $`P_{\mathrm{octave}}`$ of Fig. 3 shows a strong magnetic field dependence up to applied fields of 12 T especially at low bias currents. Again, this in contradiction to a multi-domain state, for which domain fluctuations are expected to be strongly suppressed at fields above about 1 T where the domains are fully aligned.

## IV Summary

In summary, we performed a detailed analysis of the low frequency $`1/f`$-noise in individual bicrystal grain boundary junctions formed in epitaxial $`\mathrm{La}_{0.67}\mathrm{Ca}_{0.33}\mathrm{MnO}_3`$ films as a function of temperature, bias current, and applied magnetic field. Our noise data show that the low frequency noise in these junctions showing nearly ideal two-level resistance switching is due to localized sites with fluctuating magnetic moments in a strongly distorted barrier region. This is in full agreement with the description of the electrical transport properties of the GBJs by elastic and inelastic tunneling via localized defects states within an insulating grain boundary barrier. Low frequency noise due to domain fluctuations in the junction electrodes is found to play no significant role in the investigated samples. Additional Lorentzian contributions to the noise showing up at low temperature most likely are caused by clusters of interacting magnetic moments. The analysis of the electrical transport properties and the noise up to high magnetic fields suggests that the grain boundary barrier is rather a spin glass than a paramagnetic layer.

## V Acknowledgment

The authors want to thank C. Höfener and J. Klein for valuable discussions. This work has been supported by the BMBF.


text:
# Parametric resonance in quantum field theory

## Abstract

We present the first study of parametric resonance in quantum field theory from a complete next-to-leading order calculation in a $`1/N`$-expansion of the 2PI effective action, which includes scattering and memory effects. We present a complete numerical solution for an $`O(N)`$-symmetric scalar theory and provide an approximate analytic description of the nonlinear dynamics in the entire amplification range. We find that the classical resonant amplification at early times is followed by a collective amplification regime with explosive particle production in a broad momentum range, which is not accessible in a leading-order calculation.

In quantum field theory the phenomenon of parametric resonance describes the resonant amplification of quantum fluctuations, which can be interpreted as particle production. It provides an important building block for our understanding of the (pre)heating of the early universe after a period of inflation preheat1 . It has been frequently discussed for relativistic heavy-ion collisions in the formation of disoriented chiral condensates dcc , or the decay of Polyakov-loop condensates Ploop , or parity-odd bubbles bubbles .

Despite being a basic phenomenon that can occur in a large variety of quantum field theories, parametric resonance is a rather complex process, which has so far defied most attempts for a complete analytic treatment even for simple theories. It is a far-from-equilibrium phenomenon involving densities inversely proportional to the coupling. The nonperturbatively large occupation numbers cannot be described by standard kinetic descriptions. So far, classical statistical field theory simulations on the lattice have been the only quantitative approach available preheat2 . These are valid for not too late times, before the approach to quantum thermal equilibrium sets in. Up to now, studies in quantum field theory have been mainly limited to linear or mean-field type approximations (leading-order in large-$`N`$, Hartree) LOapp , which present a valid description for sufficiently early times. However, they are known to fail to describe thermalization and miss important rescattering effects preheat2 ; preheat3 . Going beyond mean-field has long been a major difficulty in practice: Similar to perturbation theory, standard approximations such as based on $`1/N`$–expansions of the one-particle irreducible (1PI) effective action can be secular in time and do not provide a valid description. In contrast, it has recently been demonstrated quantum ; thermal  for $`1+1`$ dimensional theories that far-from-equilibrium dynamics and subsequent thermalization can be described using a $`1/N`$-expansion of the two-particle irreducible (2PI) effective action 2PI ; quantum ; AABBS . Below, we show that this provides a systematic and practicable nonperturbative approach for quantum field theories in $`3+1`$ dimensions and with a nonzero macroscopic field $`\varphi `$, relevant for realistic particle physics applications.

In this work, we present the first quantum field theoretical description of the phenomenon of parametric resonance taking into account rescattering: For an $`O(N)`$–symmetric scalar field theory we employ the 2PI $`1/N`$-expansion to next-to-leading order (NLO), which includes off-shell and memory effects quantum ; AABBS . We point out that the approach solves the problem of an explicit description of the dynamics of correlation functions at nonperturbatively large densities. We present a complete numerical solution of the corresponding equations of motion. Moreover, we identify the relevant contributions to the dynamics at various times and provide an approximate analytic description of the nonlinear dynamics for the entire amplification range. Apart from the resonant amplification in the linear regime, we identify two characteristic time scales, which signal strongly enhanced particle production in a broad momentum range due to nonlinear, source effects. This collective amplification is crucial for the rapid approach to a subsequent, quasistationary regime, where direct scattering drive a very slow evolution towards thermal equilibrium. We emphasize that these processes cannot be seen in mean-field approximations. Similar phenomena have been observed in classical field theories preheat2 , and we present an analytic criterion for the validity of classical statistical approximations. These effects are important for a reliable description of the system at the end of the resonance stage for finite $`N1/\lambda `$. For realistic inflationary models with typically $`\lambda 1`$ this is, in particular, crucial to determine whether there are any radiatively restored symmetries.

We consider a relativistic real scalar field $`\phi _a`$ ($`a=1,\mathrm{},N`$) with action $`S[\phi ]=_x\{\frac{1}{2}\phi _a(\mathrm{}_x+m^2)\phi _a+\frac{\lambda }{4!N}(\phi _a\phi _a)^2\}`$, where summation over repeated indices is implied. We use the notation $`_x_𝒞dx^0d𝐱`$ with $`𝒞`$ denoting a closed time path along the real axis. All correlation functions of the quantum theory can be obtained from the 2PI generating functional for Green’s functions $`\mathrm{\Gamma }[\varphi ,G]`$, parametrized by the field expectation value $`\varphi _a(x)=\phi _a(x)`$ and the connected propagator $`G_{ab}(x,y)=\mathrm{T}_𝒞\phi _a(x)\phi _b(y)\varphi _a(x)\varphi _b(y)`$ 2PI :

$$\mathrm{\Gamma }[\varphi ,G]=S[\varphi ]+\frac{i}{2}\text{Tr}\mathrm{ln}G^1+\frac{i}{2}\text{Tr}G_0^1(\varphi )G+\mathrm{\Gamma }_2[\varphi ,G],$$

where $`iG_{0,ab}^1(x,y;\varphi )\frac{\delta ^2S[\varphi ]}{\delta \varphi _a(x)\delta \varphi _b(y)}`$. The term $`\mathrm{\Gamma }_2[\varphi ,G]`$ contains all contributions beyond one-loop order and can be represented as a sum over closed 2PI graphs 2PI . To NLO in the 2PI $`1/N`$-expansion, $`\mathrm{\Gamma }_2[\varphi ,G]`$ contains the diagrams with topology shown in Fig. 1 quantum ; AABBS . The infinite series can be summed analytically:

$`\mathrm{\Gamma }_2[\varphi ,G]={\displaystyle \frac{\lambda }{4!N}}{\displaystyle _x}G_{aa}(x,x)G_{bb}(x,x)+{\displaystyle \frac{i}{2}}\text{Tr}\text{ln}𝐁(G)`$
$`+`$ $`{\displaystyle \frac{i\lambda ^2}{(6N)^2}}{\displaystyle _{xyz}}𝐁^1(x,z;G)G^2(z,y)\varphi _a(x)G_{ab}(x,y)\varphi _b(y)`$
with $`𝐁(x,y;G)\delta (xy)+\frac{i\lambda }{6N}G^2(x,y)`$ and $`G^2(x,y)G_{ab}(x,y)G_{ab}(x,y)`$. The equations of motion 111For details see Eqs. (5.1) and (B.6) – (B.14) of Ref. AABBS . are

$$\frac{\delta \mathrm{\Gamma }[\varphi ,G]}{\delta \varphi _a(x)}=0,\frac{\delta \mathrm{\Gamma }[\varphi ,G]}{\delta G_{ab}(x,y)}=0.$$
(1)
As we will show below, for the phenomenon of parametric resonance, each diagram of the infinite series in Fig. 1 eventually contributes at the same order in the coupling $`\lambda `$. In this sense, the 2PI $`1/N`$-expansion to NLO represents a minimal approach for a controlled description including rescattering. This justifies the rather involved complexity of the approximation.

Overview. Parametric amplification of quantum fluctuations can be best studied in a weakly coupled system that is initially in a pure quantum state, characterized by a large “classical” field amplitude $`\varphi _a(t)=\sigma (t)M_0\sqrt{6N/\lambda }\delta _{a1}`$, and small quantum fluctuations, corresponding to vanishing particle numbers at initial time. Here $`M_0`$ sets our unit of mass and the rescaled field $`\sigma (t=0)\sigma _0`$ is of order unity.

We first present results from a full numerical 222Typical volumes $`(N_sa_s)^3`$ of $`N_s=36`$$`48`$ with $`a_s=0.4`$$`0.3`$ lead to results which are rather insensitive to finite-size and cutoff effects. Displayed numerical results are for $`N=4`$. For details about the numerical method see quantum . integration of the time evolution at NLO. In Fig. 2 we show the classical-field and the fluctuation contributions to the (conserved) total energy as functions of time. The former dominates at early times and one observes that more and more energy is converted into fluctuations as the system evolves. A characteristic time – denoted as $`t_{\mathrm{nonpert}}`$ in Fig. 2 – is reached when the classical and the fluctuation part of the energy become of the same size. Before this time, the coherent oscillations of the field $`\varphi `$ lead to a resonant enhancement of fluctuations in a narrow range of momenta around a specific value $`|𝐩|p_0`$: this is parametric resonance preheat1 ; LOapp . Nonlinear interactions between field modes then cause this amplification to spread to a broad range of momenta. We find that the resulting rate of amplification exceeds the characteristic rate $`\gamma _0`$ for the resonant growth. This is illustrated in Figs. 3 and 4, where the effective particle numbers thermal  are displayed for various momenta as a function of time, both for the transverse ($`G_{}`$) and the longitudinal ($`G_{}`$) sector, with $`G_{ab}=\mathrm{diag}\{G_{},G_{},\mathrm{},G_{}\}`$. One observes that, in contrast to the rapid changes for particle numbers before $`t_{\mathrm{nonpert}}`$, a comparably slow quasistationary evolution takes place at later times. The fluctuation dominated regime for $`tt_{\mathrm{nonpert}}`$ is characterized by strong nonlinearities. For instance, from Fig. 2 one infers for $`tt_{\mathrm{nonpert}}`$ that the classical field decay “overshoots” and is temporarily reversed by feed-back from the modes. This can be directly seen in the evolution for the rescaled field shown in Fig. 5. The particle numbers of Figs. 3 and 4 exhibit correspondingly a reverse behavior. Very similar phenomena have been observed in related classical theories preheat2 , though a direct comparison requires simulations for the same model as studied here pretherm . There the full nonlinearities, i.e. including all orders in $`1/N`$, are taken into account while leaving out quantum corrections. This indicates the capability of the 2PI $`1/N`$ expansion at NLO to capture the dominant nonlinear dynamics.

The characteristic properties described above can be understood analytically from the evolution equations for the Fourier modes of the one- and two-point functions. Separating real and imaginary parts with $`G_,(t,t^{};𝐩)=F_,(t,t^{};𝐩)\frac{i}{2}\rho _,(t,t^{};𝐩)\mathrm{sign}_𝒞(tt^{})`$, the real $`\rho _,`$ denote the spectral and $`F_,`$ the statistical two-point functions thermal ; quantum . We define:

$$M^2(t)=m^2+\frac{\lambda }{6N}[3T_{}(t)+(N1)T_{}(t)],$$
(2)
where $`T_,(t)=^\mathrm{\Lambda }\frac{\mathrm{d}𝐩}{(2\pi )^3}F_,(t,t;𝐩)`$ with $`\mathrm{\Lambda }p_0`$. Initially, $`F_{}(0,0;𝐩)=1/2\omega _{}(𝐩)`$, $`_tF_{}(t,0;𝐩)|_{t=0}=0`$, $`_t_t^{}F_{}(t,t^{};𝐩)|_{t=t^{}=0}=\omega _{}(𝐩)/2`$, and similarly for $`F_{}`$. The frequencies are $`\omega _{}(𝐩)=[𝐩^2+M_0^2(1+3\sigma _0^2)]^{1/2}`$, $`M_0^2M^2(0)`$, and similarly for $`\omega _{}(𝐩)`$ with $`3\sigma _0^2\sigma _0^2`$. The initial conditions for the spectral functions are fixed by the equal-time commutation relations: $`\rho _,(t,t^{};𝐩)|_{t=t^{}}=0`$ and $`_t\rho _,(t,t^{};𝐩)|_{t=t^{}}=1`$ thermal ; quantum .

(I) Early-time linear (Lamé) regime: parametric resonance. At early times the $`\sigma `$–field evolution equation receives the dominant ($`𝒪(\lambda ^0)`$) contributions from the classical action $`S`$. The classical field dynamics is characterized by rapid oscillations with constant amplitude and period $`2\pi /\omega _0`$. The evolution equations for the two-point functions at $`𝒪(\lambda ^0)`$ correspond to free-field equations with the addition of a time dependent mass term $`3\sigma ^2(t)`$ for the longitudinal and $`\sigma ^2(t)`$ for the transverse modes. The dynamics in this linear regime has been extensively studied in the literature and is known to be described by the solution of a Lamé equation preheat1 ; LOapp : Parametric resonance manifests itself by an exponential growth of the statistical two-point functions describing particle production in a narrow momentum range with $`p^2\frac{\sigma _0^2}{2}`$. Averaging over the short-time scale $`\omega _0^1`$ one finds for the transverse modes for $`t,t^{}\gamma _0^1`$:

$$F_{}(t,t^{};𝐩_0)e^{\gamma _0(t+t^{})},$$
(3)
for the maximally enhanced mode with $`p_0\frac{\sigma _0}{2}`$. One finds a much smaller growth for the longitudinal modes (cf. also Fig. 4). The analytic solution to $`𝒪(\lambda ^0)`$ agrees accurately with the NLO numerical results at early times.

(II) Source-induced amplification regime: enhanced particle production for longitudinal modes. Because of the exponential growth of the transverse fluctuations for $`\gamma _0t1`$, the $`𝒪(\lambda ^0)`$ approximation eventually breaks down at some time. Using the two-loop graphs of Fig. 1, at $`𝒪(\lambda )`$ the evolution equation for $`F_{}`$ can be approximated by

$`\left(_t^2+𝐩^2+3\sigma ^2(t)+M^2(t)\right)F_{}(t,t^{};𝐩)`$
$`2\alpha \sigma ^2(t)\mathrm{T}_{}(t)F_{}(t,t^{};𝐩)+\alpha \sigma (t)\sigma (t^{})\mathrm{\Pi }_{}^F(t,t^{};𝐩),`$
with $`\mathrm{\Pi }_{}^F(t,t^{};𝐩)=d𝐪F_{}(t,t^{};𝐩𝐪)F_{}(t,t^{};𝐪)`$, and $`\alpha =\frac{\lambda }{(2\pi )^3}\frac{N1}{6N}\frac{c^2}{\omega _0^2}`$ with constant $`c1`$. Here, we have used that the momentum integrals are dominated by the amplified transverse modes. In addition, we exploit the fact that, for $`t^{\prime \prime }tt_{\mathrm{nonpert}}`$,

$$F_{}^2(t,t^{\prime \prime };𝐩_0)\rho _{}^2(t,t^{\prime \prime };𝐩_0)/4.$$
(5)
Its validity can be seen from (3) and the corresponding behavior of $`\rho _{}(t,t^{\prime \prime };𝐩_0)e^{\gamma _0(tt^{\prime \prime })}`$ for $`t^{\prime \prime }t`$. We emphasize that strictly neglecting in the evolution equations $`\rho ^2`$-terms as compared to $`F^2`$-terms for all modes and all times corresponds to the classical statistical field theory limit quantum . This provides an explicit analytic criterion for the applicability of the classical methods employed in preheat2 . For sufficiently early times, all momentum integrals are indeed dominated by the enhanced modes $`𝐩𝐩_0`$ for which (5) is valid. A detailed analysis reveals that the memory integrals appearing in the equations of motion are dominated by the latest times $`t^{\prime \prime }t`$: One can explicitely verify that effective locality, described by the replacement $`_0^tdt^{\prime \prime }_{tc/\omega _0}^tdt^{\prime \prime }`$ (cf. Eq. (Parametric resonance in quantum field theory)), is valid for the time-averaged behavior over the short-time scale $`\omega _0^1`$. We conclude that classical statistical approximations can provide a good description in this regime.

The first term on the RHS of (Parametric resonance in quantum field theory) is a NLO contribution to the mass, whereas the second term represents a source-term, resulting from annihilations of amplified transverse modes as well as stimulated emission processes. To evaluate the momentum integrals, we use a saddle point approximation around $`pp_0`$, valid for $`t,t^{}\gamma _0^1`$, with $`F_{}(t,t^{},𝐩)F_{}(t,t^{},𝐩_0)\mathrm{exp}[|\gamma _0^{\prime \prime }|(t+t^{})(pp_0)^2/2]`$:

$`T_{}(t)`$ $``$ $`{\displaystyle \frac{p_0^2F_{}(t,t;𝐩_0)}{2(\pi ^3|\gamma _0^{\prime \prime }|t)^{1/2}}},`$ (6)
$`\mathrm{\Pi }_{}^F(t,t^{};0)`$ $``$ $`{\displaystyle \frac{p_0^2F_{}^2(t,t^{};𝐩_0)}{4(\pi ^3|\gamma _0^{\prime \prime }|(t+t^{}))^{1/2}}}.`$ (7)
Here we wrote the source term for its maximum at $`𝐩=0`$. More precisely, it affects all modes with $`𝐩2𝐩_0`$.

An important characteristic time is reached when the mass corrections become comparable to the classical mass term. This can be seen to happen at $`t_{\mathrm{nonpert}}(\mathrm{ln}\lambda ^1)/(2\gamma _0)`$, when $`\mathrm{T}_{}𝒪(\lambda ^1)`$ (see also LOapp ). Note that at this time, both the LO and the NLO mass terms are of the same order in $`\lambda `$, but with opposite sign. We point out that the source term in (Parametric resonance in quantum field theory) becomes important at the earlier time

$$t_{\mathrm{source}}t_{\mathrm{nonpert}}/2,$$
(8)
when $`F_{}(t,t^{};𝐩_0)𝒪(N^0\lambda ^{1/2})`$. For $`tt_{\mathrm{source}}`$, the exponentially growing source drives the dynamics of longitudinal modes and one finds a strong amplification for $`p2p_0`$: $`F_{}(t,t^{};𝐩)\mathrm{exp}[2\gamma _0(t+t^{})]`$. This agrees precisely with the numerical results shown in Fig. 4.

(III) Collective amplification regime: explosive particle production in a broad momentum range. A similar analysis can be made for the transverse fluctuations. The approximate evolution equation for $`F_{}`$ has a similar structure as (Parametric resonance in quantum field theory). Beyond the $`𝒪(\lambda ^0)`$ (Lamé) description, it receives contributions from the feed-back of the longitudinal modes at $`𝒪(\lambda )`$ and from the amplified transverses mode at $`𝒪(\lambda ^2)`$. The corresponding mass corrections remain small until $`t_{\mathrm{nonpert}}`$, whereas the source term is parametrically of the form $`\lambda ^2F_{}^3/N`$. This leads to the characteristic time

$$t_{\mathrm{collect}}2t_{\mathrm{nonpert}}/3+(\mathrm{ln}N)/(6\gamma _0)$$
(9)
at which $`F_{}(t,t^{};𝐩_0)𝒪(N^{1/3}\lambda ^{2/3})`$. Correspondingly, for $`t_{\mathrm{collect}}tt_{\mathrm{nonpert}}`$ one finds a large particle production rate $`6\gamma _0`$ for a wide range of momenta, in agreement with the full NLO results in Fig. 3. In this time range the longitudinal modes exhibit an enhanced amplification as well (cf. Fig. 4). The abundant particle production is accompanied by an exponential decrease of the classical-field energy. We emphasize that the collective amplification regime is absent in the LO large-$`N`$ approximation. Consequently, even for the transverse sector the latter does not give an accurate description at intermediate times if $`t_{\mathrm{collect}}t_{\mathrm{nonpert}}`$, that is for $`N\lambda ^1`$.

(IV) Nonperturbative regime: quasistationary evolution. At $`tt_{\mathrm{nonpert}}`$ one finds $`F_{}(t,t^{};𝐩_0)𝒪(N^0\lambda ^1)`$. As a consequence, there are leading contributions ($`\lambda ^0`$) to the dynamics coming from all loop orders (cf. Fig. 1). In particular, the evolution equations are no longer “local” in the sense described under (II) and memory effects become important. In contrast to the rapid resonant dynamics before $`t_{\mathrm{nonpert}}`$, a comparably slow, quasistationary evolution driven by direct scattering sets in. We emphasize that the collective amplification regime triggered a rapid approach to monotonously decreasing particle number distributions as functions of momentum, which become quasistationary afterwards (cf. Figs. 3, 4). The approach to true thermal equilibrium is exceedingly slow for the employed range of couplings $`\lambda =10^610`$, for which a non-negligible parametric resonance regime can be observed. For phenomenological applications it is therefore crucial that in the quasistationary, pre-thermal regime in the spirit of Refs. pretherm ; dcc  a number of aspects do not differ much from the late-time thermal regime BSW .

We thank R. Baier, C. Wetterich and T. Prokopec for fruitful discussions. Numerical computations were done on the PC cluster HELICS of the Interdisciplinary Center for Scientific Computing (IWR), Heidelberg University.