Current–voltage characteristics and electrical transport properties of grain boundaries in La1−x(Sr/Ca)xMnO3

Abstract

Grain boundaries in doped lanthanum manganites have been shown to have a large low-field magnetoresistance. However, the mechanism of electrical transport across grain boundaries, and the origin of the low-field magnetoresistance, are not well understood. Models based on scattering at domain walls, spin-polarized tunneling and depression of the Curie temperature due to strain near the grain boundary have all been proposed. This article reports detailed studies of the transport properties of artificial grain boundaries formed in a variety of thin films grown on bicrystal substrates. Resistance versus field sweeps on all grain boundary devices showed strong low-field magnetoresistance and the effect of individual domain motion at the grain boundary has been observed in single grain boundaries. In all cases, current versus voltage characteristics were highly non-ohmic, and reminiscent of an electron tunneling process. However, the magnetic dependence of the current–voltage characteristics implies that the magnetoresistance may be unrelated to tunneling.