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Surface and transport studies on La0.7Ba0.3MnO3:SnO2 bilayer

Abstract:

We report on study of morphology, optical contrast and transport characteristics of La<inf>0.7</inf>Ba<inf>0.3</inf>MnO<inf>3</inf> (LBMO) manganite thin films bilayered with SnO<inf>2</inf> on Si (0 0 1) substrate, synthesized using pulsed laser deposition system. X-ray diffraction study reveals that both LBMO and SnO<inf>2</inf> show polycrystalline growth over the substrate. Atomic force microscopy shows interesting pyramidal structures of LBMO of size ∼2 μm × 1 μm × 0.1 μm. On the other hand, SnO<inf>2</inf> grows in the form of close packed cylindrical clusters of ∼200 nm radius. Near-field optical microscopy (NSOM) study using 532 nm laser reveal that optical NSOM output intensity in LBMO is four times less than SnO<inf>2</inf> signal. Transport characterizations show that this bilayer configuration exhibit non-linear current-voltage characteristics from 300 upto 50 K. The nature becomes linear below this temperature. The results project the system as a promising candidate in non-conventional device category in the area of spintronics. © 2008 Elsevier B.V. All rights reserved.