Structural study and magnetoresistance effect of epitaxial La0.67Sr0.33MnO3-δ and Pr0.7Ca0.3MnO3-δ multilayer films

Abstract La 0.67 Sr 0.33 MnO 3−δ (LSMO) and Pr 0.7 Ca 0.3 MnO 3−δ (PCMO) multilayer epitaxial films, which were fabricated with different LSMO and PCMO layer thickness on LaAlO 3 single crystal substrates of (0 0 1) orientation by a direct current magnetron sputtering technique, were studied further, after the structure, magnetoresistance effect and magnetic properties of LSMO/PCMO/LSMO (LPL) trilayer epitaxial films were systemically studied. The superlattice structures of multilayer films were observed according to the diffraction peaks of X-ray diffraction patterns at small angles. The metal–insulator transition temperature ( T P ) and peak resistivity ( ρ max ) obviously changed when we altered the thickness of PCMO middle layer and the intra-field related with the thickness of those layers and their interaction. Considering the effect of the distribution of electrical field and current, and the interaction among the layers of LSMO and PCMO, an effective fact n * was introduced to replace n (the number of layer). All the calculated values of ρ (the resistivity of multilayer films) accorded with the experimental values.