Effect of superconducting spacer layer thickness on magneto-transport and magnetic properties of La0.7Sr0.3MnO3/YBa2Cu3O7/La0.7Sr0.3MnO3 heterostructures

We have studied the magneto-transport and magnetic properties of LSMO/YBCO/LSMO trilayers on LaAlO3 (001) substrate, deposited using pulsed laser deposition technique. From x-ray diffraction measurements, it is confirmed that the grown trilayer films are single phase natured. The temperature dependent resistivity shows a metallic behavior below 350 K. At low temperature from resistivity fitted data, we observe that electron-electron, electron-phonon, and electron-magnon interactions are the main factors for scattering of carriers. The ferromagnetic LSMO layers suppress the critical temperature of YBCO spacer layer. We observe maximum magnetoresistance value similar to 49% at 250K for LSMO(200 nm)/YBCO(50nm)/LSMO(200nm) trilayer. Magnetization measurements reveal that at room temperature the YBCO spacer layer is allowing the LSMO layers to interact antiferromagnetically. (C) 2014 AIP Publishing LLC.