Spin-dependent electron transport in manganite bicrystal junctions

Magnetic bicrystal films and junctions of magnetic La_0.67Sr_0.33MnO₃ (LSMO) and La_0.67Ca_0.33MnO₃ (LCMO) films epitaxially grown on NdGaO₃ substrates with the (110) planes of their two parts misoriented (tilted) at angles of 12°, 22°, 28°, and 38° are investigated. For comparison, bicrystal boundaries with a 90° misorientation of the axes of the NdGaO₃ (110) planes were fabricated. The directions of the axes and the magnetic anisotropy constants of the films on both sides of the boundary are determined by two independent techniques of magnetic resonance spectroscopy. The magnetic misorientation of the axes in the substrate plane has been found to be much smaller than the crystallographic misorientation for tilted bicrystal boundaries, while the crystallographic and magnetic misorientation angles coincide for boundaries with rotation of the axes. An increase in the magnetoresistance and characteristic resistance of bicrystal junctions with increasing misorientation angle was observed experimentally. The magnetoresistance of bicrystal junctions has been calculated by taking into account the uniaxial anisotropy, which has allowed the contributions from the tunneling and anisotropic magnetoresistances to be separated. The largest tunneling magnetoresistance was observed on LCMO bicrystal junctions, in which the characteristic resistance of the boundary is higher than that in LSMO boundaries.     

Symmetrical high-T c superconducting bicrystal Josephson junctions: Dependence of the electrical properties on the misorientation angle

The electrical properties of junctions at symmetrical bicrystal boundaries in high-T _c superconducting films are studied as functions of the misorientation angle in the range 8°–45°. The junctions are prepared by growing YBa₂Cu₃O₇ (YBCO) epitaxial films on Y-ZrO₂ (YSZ) bicrystal substrates. The proportional relationship between the characteristic voltages and the normal conductivities of junctions is derived from the dependences of the critical current and the normal resistance on the misorientation angle. The results are interpreted within the model of a superconductor-dielectric with defect levels in the band gap of the superconductor. The deviations from the proportional relationship are explained by the junction inhomogeneity. The thickness of the effective dielectric layer in the bicrystal junction and the Bohr radius of electrons on the defects are estimated.     

Magnetoresistance and electrical conductivity of manganite bicrystal contacts

Magnetic bicrystal contacts in epitaxial films of manganite La_0.67Ca_0.33MnO₃ prepared on bicrystal substrates with a misorientation of the NdGaO₃(110) basal planes rotated through an angle of ±14° around the bicrystal boundary line were studied. The temperature dependence of the contact electrical resistance was studied, and the magnetoresistance was measured in fields of up to 1.5 kOe. It is shown that the suppression of ferromagnetic correlations near the boundary leads to the formation of a layer having a substantially lower Curie temperature. Magnetoresistance of 150%, which is record-braking for bicrystal contacts, was measured at T = 4.2 K in a weak magnetic field of about 500 Oe and at a characteristic electrical resistance of the boundary of 3 × 10⁻⁶ Ω cm². It is found that slight orthorhombic distortions of a La_0.67Ca_0.33MnO₃ film due to a lattice mismatch with the NdGaO₃(110) substrate crystal structure lead to the formation of biaxial magnetic anisotropy in the La_0.67Ca_0.33MnO₃ film.     

高温超导GdBa2Cu3O7-δ薄膜双晶晶界结特性研究

在晶界夹角为24°的YSZ人工双晶基片上,采用原位直流磁控溅射法制备了高温超导双晶GdBa₂Cu₃O_7-δ超导薄膜。采用光刻技术在晶界上刻出了尺寸5×5μm²的双晶晶界结。在77K下观测了结的直流I-V特性和在10GHz微波辐射下结的Shapiro台阶。这表明我们的人工双晶晶界结具有约瑟夫森弱连接行为。对结的特性进行了初步的理论分析和在实验基础上的数值模拟,模拟结果与RSJ理论符合较好,表明我们的双晶晶界结基本符合RSJ模型。     

Andreev states and shot noise in bicrystal junctions of cuprate superconductors

Experimentally observed features of the electrical and noise characteristics of bicrystal junctions of cuprate superconductors, such as linearity of the critical current density versus square root of the junction transparency and increase in the spectral density of shot noise for small bias voltages (below the superconducting gap), indicate that the superconducting current in cuprate bicrystal junctions is determined by the passage of quasi-particles through a potential barrier at the superconductor boundaries. This process involves bound states appearing as a result of multiple Andreev reflections in superconductors with dominant wavefunction components of the d _x ² ? _y ² symmetry type. At the same time, interpretation of the experimental current-phase and current-magnetic field curves requires that the character of faceting at the bicrystal junctions would be also taken into account.     

Study of magnetoresistance and conductance of bicrystal grain boundary in La0.67Ba0.33MnO3 thin film

La_0.67Ba_0.33MnO₃ (LBMO) thin film is deposited on a 36.7°C SrTiO₃ bicrystal substrate using laser ablation technique. A microbridge is created across bicrystal grain boundary and its characteristics are compared with a microbridge on the LBMO film having no grain boundary. Presence of grain boundary exhibits substantial magnetoresistance ratio (MRR) in the low field and low temperature region. Bicrystal grain boundary contribution in MRR disappears at temperature T>175 K. At low temperature, I-V characteristic of the microbridge across bicrystal grain boundary is nonlinear. Analysis of temperature dependence of dynamic conductance-voltage characteristics of the bicrystal grain boundary indicates that at low temperatures (T<175 K) carrier transport across the grain boundary in LBMO film is dominated by inelastic tunneling via pairs of manganese atoms and tunneling through disordered oxides. At higher temperatures (T>175 K), magnetic scattering process is dominating. Decrease of bicrystal grain boundary contribution in magnetoresistance with the increase in temperature is due to enhanced spin-flip scattering process.     

高Tc超导GdBa_2Cu_3O_(7-δ)薄膜双晶晶界结及双晶结光探测器

在晶界夹角分别为 2 4°,3 2°的 YSZ双晶基片上 ,制备了高 Tc Gd Ba2 Cu3O7-δ双晶超导薄膜 ,采用光刻技术在晶界上刻出了两种不同尺寸的双晶晶界结 ,在液氮温度下观测了结的直流 I-V特性 ,用 1 0 GHz微波辐照双晶结结区 ,观察到了结临界电流的压缩和 Shapiro台阶 ,表明双晶结具有约瑟夫逊弱连接行为。用上述双晶结进行光探测 ,用波长为 0 .63 2 8μm的 He-Ne激光器辐照结区 ,系统的观测了其光响应特性 ,结果如下 :噪声等效功率 NEP =1 .9× 1 0 - 1 3W,归一化探测率 D*=5.3× 1 0 9cm Hz12 W- 1 ,响应率 Rv =4 .2× 1 0 7V/W,响应时间 τ<6.3 5× 1 0 - 7s     

High-quality YBCO d.c. SQUIDs based on bicrystal substrates

Summary An analysis of superconducting transport properties and magnetic behaviour of d.c. SQUIDs employing YBCO bicrystal grain boundary junctions (GBJs) has been performed. GBJs have been obtained by deposition of ac-axis-oriented YBCO film on a SrTiO₃ bicrystal substrate by ICM sputtering technique. Experimental measurements on a YBCO d.c. SQUID with a misorientation angle θ=20° are reported. The SQUID shows a critical temperatureT _c∼89 K and a high critical current densityJ _c∼3·10⁶ A/cm² atT=4.2 K. Current-voltage characteristics are close to the behaviour predicted by the resistively shunted junction (RSJ) model and the temperature dependenceJ _c(T) shows a linear behaviour at small reduced temperatures and a depressedJ _c value close toT _c. High-quality flux-voltage curves have been found upT=87 K over a large range of magnetic field. The high reproducibility and the good control of transport properties by the variation of θ make YBCO bicrystal GBJs very useful for applications in electronics. Paper presented at the ?VII Congresso SATT?, Torino, 4–7 October 1994.     

巨磁电阻材料La0.9Sr0.1MnO3与半导体Si组成的二极管的整流特性

掺杂锰氧化物La_0.9Sr_0.1MnO₃薄膜被直接沉积在n型 硅基片上，构成p-n结.这种p-n结在很宽的温度范围内都有很好的整流特性.研究结果表明， 这种p-n结的结电阻对低磁场敏感，在3×10^-2T的磁场下，磁电阻可达70％.磁 电阻的正负依赖于温度.磁电阻的大小可通过加在p-n结上的电压调节.     

SrTiO3基片上Tl-2212双晶约瑟夫森结的动态特性及噪声影响研究

在SrTiO₃（STO）基片上制作了Tl-2212双晶约瑟夫森结,并对其进行了微波辐照下的I-V特性测试,观察到了夏皮罗台阶,符合约瑟夫森电压-频率关系.利用数值仿真对约瑟夫森结建立了RCSJ模型,仿真结果与实验数据符合较好,利用此模型深入研究了噪声对结动态特性的影响,解释了噪声影响下结的微波感应台阶幅度减小和极小值展宽现象,提出了有效噪声温度为工作温度和外部噪声的等效温度之和. 关键词： RCSJ模型 噪声 Tl-2212双晶约瑟夫森结     

A new rf plasma oxidation method for the insulating AlOx barrier in magnetic tunneling junctions

An rf remote plasma oxidation technique to form an insulating barrier was carried out to enhance properties of CoFe/AlO_x/CoFe magnetic tunneling junctions. The rf remote plasma method was found to reduce self-bias effect on the barrier during the rf oxidation process and to increase atomic oxygen concentration in a plasma state. Experimentally observed rms roughness of the barrier in our magnetic tunnel junction was decreased from 5 to 1.5 Å. In addition, electrical breakdown voltage and magnetoresistance of our magnetic tunnel junction devices were increased from 0.8 V up to 1.2 V and from 7% up to 30%, respectively.     

Ca‐doped Ba2Cu3O7–δ bicrystal junctions fabricated on asymmetric SrTiO3 substrates

Bicrystal grain–boundary Josephson junctions of Ca–doped YBa₂Cu₃O_7–δ that is Y_0.7Ca_0.3Ba₂Cu₃O_7–δ were fabricated on three bicrystal SrTiO₃ (001) substrates with asymmetric 30°, 40° and 45° orientations. An enhancement of the critical current density in these Ca–doped junctions was observed when compared with normal YBCO grain–boundary junctions with similar angular orientations. The observed increase in the critical current density is large for the junctions fabricated on the asymmetric 30° bicrystal substrate and small or negligible, for those on the asymmetric 45° bicrystal substrate. The critical current was modulated by a magnetic field applied in the plane of the junctions. However, the Fraunhofer pattern observed due to the applied magnetic field deviates from the ideal one.     

高Tc超导薄膜约瑟夫逊结光探测研究

我们研制了具有约瑟夫逊效应的高Tc GdBa₂Cu₃O₇-薄膜双晶晶界结,对其交直流约瑟夫逊效应进行了观测,并用其进行光探测,用波长为0.6328μm的He-Ne激光器辐照双晶结结区,系统观测了双晶晶界结的光响应特性,得到的最好结果如下噪音等效功率NEP=1.9×10^-13W,归一化探测率D=53×109cmHz^1/2W^-1,响应率Rv=4.2×10⁷V/W,响应时间τ=4.35×10^-7s.     

Capacitance–voltage and conductance–voltage characteristics of Ag/n-CdO/p-Si MIS structure prepared by sol–gel method

The frequency dependent electrical properties of Ag/n-CdO/p-Si structure has been investigated using capacitance–voltage (C–V) and conductance–voltage (G/ω–V) characteristics in the frequency range 10 kHz–1 MHz in the room temperature. The increase in capacitance at lower frequencies is observed as a signature of interface states. The presence of the interfaces states (N_SS) is also evidenced as a peak in the capacitance–frequency characteristics. Furthermore, the voltage and frequency dependence of series resistance were calculated from the C–V and G/ω–V measurements and plotted as functions of voltage and frequency. The distribution profile of R_S–V gives a peak in the depletion region at low frequencies and disappears with increasing frequencies. The values of interface state densities and series resistance from capacitance–voltage-frequency (C–V-f) and conductance–voltage-frequency (G/ω–V-f) measurements were obtained in the ranges of 1.44×10¹⁶–7.59×10¹² cm^?2 eV^?1 and 341.49–8.77 Ω, respectively. The obtained results show that the C–V-f and G/ω–V-f characteristics confirm that the interface states density (N_SS) and series resistance (R_S) of the diode are important parameters that strongly influence the electrical parameters in Ag/n-CdO/p-Si structures.     

Temperature dependence of the YBa2Cu3O7 energy gap in differently oriented tunnel junctions

We have applied the break-junction technique to highly biepitaxial c-axis oriented YBa₂Cu₃O₇ thin films with T _C (ρ=0) = 91 K. Mechanically adjustable junctions with a good stability and tunneling current favored along the ab-planes have been realized. The conductance characteristics of these junctions show the presence of gap related maxima that move towards zero bias for increasing temperatures. Considering the misorientation angle α≈ 45 ^° ± 5 ^° of the junction, a maximum gap value at the Fermi level Δ ≈ 22 meV is inferred at T = 13 K. The temperature dependence of the gap related structures, shows a quasilinear behavior for T > 0.4 T _C similar to that observed in c-axis oriented, S-I-N type YBa₂Cu₃O₇ planar junctions. Received 20 July 2001     

Effects of ZnO film thickness on electrical and magnetoresistance characteristics of La0.8Sr0.2MnO3/ZnO heterostructures

The La_0.8Sr_0.2MnO₃/ZnO heterostructures with different thicknesses of ZnO films are fabricated by using RF magnetron sputtering technique. The heterojunctions exhibit excellent rectifying properties at 300 K. At low temperatures the temperature dependent junction resistance exhibits a metal-insulator transition like behavior. A magnetic field strongly impacts on electrical characteristics of La_0.8Sr_0.2MnO₃/ZnO p-n junctions, i.e., depressing the junction resistance greatly and driving the metal-insulator transition temperature (T_MI) towards higher temperatures. Large magnetoresistance is observed below T_MI, and it increases with increasing magnetic field and almost saturates at 5 T, i.e., above −90% at 100 K and 5 T.     

Relation between giant volume magnetostriction and colossal magnetoresistance near the Curie temperature of Sm0.55Sr0.45MnO3

The magnetic, transport, and elastic properties of Sm_0.55Sr_0.45MnO₃ have been established to be interrelated. At the Curie point, one observes a large volume compression ΔV/V≈0.1%, a sharp minimum in the temperature dependence of negative volume magnetostriction ω(T), and a maximum in the temperature dependence of the electrical resistivity. Giant negative volume magnetostriction ω=?5×10^?4 has been found in a magnetic field H=0.9 T, which is accompanied by a colossal negative magnetoresistance of 44% in the same field. The results obtained are discussed in terms of a model of electronic phase separation.     

Electrical and galvanomagnetic properties of biocarbon preforms of white pine wood

The electrical and galvanomagnetic properties of high-porosity biocarbon preforms prepared from white pine wood by pyrolysis at carbonization temperatures T _carb = 1000 and 2400°C have been studied. Measurements have been made of the behavior with temperature of the electrical resistivity, as well as of magnetoresistance and the Hall coefficient in the 1.8–300-K temperature interval and magnetic fields of up to 28 kOe. It has been shown that samples of both types (with T _carb = 1000 and 2400°C) are characterized by high carrier (hole) concentrations of 6.3 × 10²⁰ and 3.6 × 10²⁰ cm⁻³, respectively. While these figures approach the metallic concentration, the electrical resistivity of the biocarbon materials studied, unlike that of normal metals, grows with decreasing temperature. Increasing T _carb brings about a decrease in electrical resistivity by a factor 1.5–2 within the 1.8–300-K temperature range. The magnetoresistance also follows a qualitatively different pattern at low (1.8–4.2 K) temperatures: it is negative for T _carb = 2400°C and positive for T _carb = 1000°C. An analysis of experimental data has revealed that the specific features in the conductivity and magnetoresistance of these samples are described by quantum corrections associated inherently with structural characteristics of the biocarbon samples studied, more specifically with the difference between the fractions of the quasi-amorphous and nanocrystalline phases, as well as with the fine structure of the latter phase forming at the two different T _carb.     

The D.C. voltage-dependent resistivity of CuCl powder compacts under pressure

The CuCl powder compacts are found to exhibit d.c. voltage dependent resistivity. The resistivity drops by six orders of magnitudes when the applied voltage exceeds a critical value V_c.V_c is found to decrease with the increase in pressure. The high conducting phase shows a positive temperature coefficient of resistance at 1 atm of 0.004°C^-1 which increases with pressure at a rate 0.0004°C^?1 GPa^?1. It is suggested that the pressure induced transition reported at 4 GPa could arise from the application of d.c. voltage.     

Effects of electron localization in V2 − y O3

The effect of nonstoichiometry on the metal-insulator phase transition in V₂O₃ is studied. It is established that an increase in the vanadium deficiency in V2 ? yO₃ brings about a shift in the phase transition temperature toward lower temperatures and an increase in the width of the temperature hysteresis loop of the electrical conductivity. As the vanadium deficiency increases to a level corresponding to the composition ～V_1.974O₃, the phase transition completely disappears and the sample remains metallic down to T = 1.6 K. The magnetoresistance is measured for samples of this composition in longitudinal and transverse magnetic fields at T = 4.2 K.