Electrical transport and magnetoresistance in La2/3Sr1/3MnO3 polycrystalline composite thin films

The manganite La2/3Sr1/3MnO3 (LSMO)/CuO and LSMO/Al2O3 polycrystalline composite thin films are deposited on Si (111) substrates in a magnetron sputtering system, using the tandem deposition method. The electrical transport and magnetoresistance properties of the films have been systematically investigated. By considering two parallel conduction channels at the grain boundary, we obtain a general expression for the temperature dependency of the resistance that agrees with the experimental data measured in LSMO polycrystalline composite thin films at whole temperature region of 300 K-10 K under the condition of zero magnetic field. Also, the resistance vs. temperature curve under an external magnetic field can be obtained by only varying one parameter in the model. It provides an effective way to obtain the high-temperature grain boundary magnetoresistance in the polycrystalline manganite. (C) 2009 Elsevier B.V. All rights reserved.