Abstract:
Strongly correlated electronic materials exhibit some of the most extraordinary properties that are tunable by substitution or doping.  Their  richness is in part due to an intense competition between order parameters.  A broad range of phenomena are found in the layered manganites by varying  doping, temperature and magnetic field.  These include: Anderson  localization, first-order and continuous metal-insulator transitions,  orbital and charge ordered insulators, weak localization and a reconstructed surface bilayer, on a ferromagnetic metallic manganite, that is insulating  and non-FM.  Based on this research we propose important modifications to  the evolving phase diagram of the layered manganites.