Influence of silver doping on the magnetoresistance and temperature coefficient of resistance in Pr0.67Sr0.33MnO3

We have synthesized and investigated the effect of Ag doping in Pr0.67Sr1-xAgxMnO3 (0 <= x <= 0.3) perovskite materials via solid state reaction route. The structural, transport and magnetoresistance behavior have been studied. The Rietveld refinement of X-ray diffraction data shows that the compounds crystallize in an orthorhombic structure with Pnma space group with systematic non-linear variation in unit cell volume and lattice parameters. The grain morphology confirms that silver enhances conducting channels and reacts well with the compound only upto a certain doping level. The temperature dependent zero-field and in-field resistivity have been measured between 5 K and 300 K. The samples exhibit a systematic variation in metal to insulator transition temperature and a large magnetoresistance at x=0.10. The highest value of temperature coefficient of resistance has been observed by us for the first time The results revealed that Ag takes part in the reaction only when the doping amount is small and at higher doping the system becomes a two phase composite. (C) 2014 Elsevier B.V. All rights reserved.