Effects of Ag Doping on Magnetoresistance of La0.833 K0.167MnO3 Polycrystalline Perovskite Manganites

The microstructure,magnetic and transport properties of the heterogeneous system with a nominal composi-tion (1/m)Ag2O-La0.833K0.167MnO3 (1/m is molar ratio with m=32,16,8,4,and 2) have been studied.The x-ray diffraction patterns show that all the samples are two-phase composite and consist of a magnetic La0.833K0.167MnO3 (LKMO) perovskite phase and a nonmagnetic metal Ag phase.The room-temperature magnetoresistance (MR) effect is enhanced significantly due to the addition of Ag.For the m=4 sample,we obtain MR values up to 32％ under a lower field of 0.5 T and 64％ under a higher field of 5.5 T at the temperature of 300K,which are much larger than the corresponding MR values (10％and 35％) of the LKMO sample withoutAg.In the low-temperature range from 4.2K to 250K,the MR values of the Ag-added samples however decrease with the increasing Ag content in the samples.This effect is discussed qualitatively by using the relative contribution from the intrinsic MR effect and the extrinsic MR effect including the spin-polarized-tunnelling and spin-dependent scattering effects in different temperature regions.     

Electrical Transport and Magnetoresistance in the Sol-Gel Prepared La2／3Ca1／3Mn1-xTExO3 （x=0 and 4%, TE=Cu and Zn） Polycrystalline Samples

A comparative st udy of electrical transport and magnetoresistance (MR) is performed for sol-gel prepared samples of nominal composition La2/3 Cal/3MnO3, La2/3 Cal/3Mnl-x CuxO3 and La2/3 Ca1/3Mn1-x ZnxO3 with x = 4%.Compared with La2/3 Ca1/3MnO3, the introduction of Cu or Zn causes a significant downward shift of insulatormetal transition and a sharp MR peak near the transition. The sharp MR peak becomes observable even upon the application of low magnetic fields. It is also shown that although the same behaviour of transport and MR is observed, the sample containing Cu stands out clearly from the sample containing Zn for a substantial enhancement in MR near the transition.     

Ultrafast Photoelectric Effects in Heterojunctions of La0.7Sr0.3MnO3 and Si

Ultrafast photoelectric effects have been observed in p-n heterojunctions of La0.7Sr0.3MnO3(LSMO)/Si and LSMO/SrTiO3_/Si for the first time. The rise time was about 1 ns and the full width at half maximum was about 2ns for the photovoltaic pulse when the heterojunction was irradiated by a laser of -25 ps pulse duration and 1064 nm wavelength. The photovoltaic sensitivity was as large as 435 mV//mJ for a 1064 nm laser pulse. No such pulse was observed with irradiation from a pulsed 10.6 μm CO2 laser.     

Intergranular Tunnelling and Field-Induced Percolation Fluctuation of Granular Composites （La1-zAgzMnO3）/（MnO2/Mn2O3）

We investigate the giant magnetoresistance of composites （La1-xAgzMnO3）1-υ（MnO2/Mn2O3）υ. The magnetoresistive property of the composites shows the characteristics of intergranular tunnelling. A conductivity leap has been observed around y = 0.7. The composite （La0.926Ag0.074MnO3）0.698（MnO2/Mn2O3）0.302 has been found to show the greatest magnetoresistance in the samples. Its room-temperature MR ratio reaches 24% under a field of 1.8T. These phenomena suggest a percolation transformation and a kind of field-induced fluctuation in percolation in the samples investigated.     

Anomalous magnetostrictive effects in （La1—xTbx）2／3Sr1／3 MnO3

A series of (La_{1-x}Tb_x)_{2/3}Sr_{1/3}MnO_3 polycrystalline samples has been studied by means of x-ray diffraction, magnetostriction, and thermal expansion measurements. It has been found that this series undergoes a phase transition from a rhombohedral to an orthorhombic form at the doping level x≈0.20 at room temperature accompanied by an anisotropic magnetostriction up to －50×10^{-6} under a magnetic field of 1T. The linear and volume magnetostrictions vary with chemical composition, even change sign. At T=80K, the magnetostrictions for the samples of x=0.20 and 0.40 exhibit different behaviours. The sample of x=0.20 has positive volume and linear magnetostrictions and a negative anisotropic magnetostriction, while the sample of x=0.40 has an opposite behaviour. The magnitude of volume magnetostriction for both the samples is essential (～10^{-4}) at T=80K under a magnetic field of 4T. We conclude that these anomalous effects are due to the charge delocalization and the structural phase transition between orthorhombic and rhombohedral forms induced by the applied magnetic field.