Electrical resistivity anomaly, valence shift of Pr ion, and magnetic behavior in epitaxial (Pr1-yYy)1-xCaxCoO3 thin films under compressive strain

We have fabricated (Pr1−yYy)1-xCaxCoO3 (PYCCO) epitaxial films with various thicknesses by pulsed laser deposition on the SrLaAlO4 (SLAO) substrate that applied an in-plane compressive stress to the film, and investigated the temperature dependence of the electrical resistivity, ρ(T), of the films. An anomalous ρ(T) upturn with a broad hysteresis could be clearly observed only for the thinnest film (d = 50 nm), and the ρ(T) anomaly decreased by increasing film thickness, d. The temperature dependence of the X-ray absorption near-edge structure (XANES) spectra at Pr L2-edge was measured for the films, and the valence states of praseodymium (Pr) ion were determined using the analysis of the XANES spectra. As a result, the average valence of the Pr ion in the d = 50 nm film slightly increases with decreasing temperature from the common value of 3.0+ around room temperature to 3.15+ at 8 K. The valence shift of Pr is thus similar to what was observed on the PYCCO polycrystalline bulks with an abrupt metal-ins...