Conduction mechanisms in lanthanum manganite nanofibers

Abstract

Lanthanum manganites are being constantly investigated for their interesting magnetic and transport properties. In this study, polycrystalline, single phase lanthanum manganite (LaMnO3) nanofibers were synthesized using an electrospinning technique, and characterized in terms of phase, microstructure, ac and dc electrical properties. X-ray diffraction and scanning electron microscopy revealed the formation of uniform composite nanofibers (average dia.∼ 600 nm) at 100 °C and polycrystalline single phase porous LaMnO3 nanofibers (average dia.∼ 400 nm) when calcined at 600 °C. Temperature dependent impedance and current-voltage (IV) characteristics of LaMnO3 nanofibers deposited on an interdigitated electrode type device, were investigated at temperatures ranging from 298 to 378 K. The observed decrease in the dielectric constant at high frequencies may be due to decrease in the contribution from dipolar polarization. Analysis of ac conductivity indicated thermally activated type conduction mechanism in these nanofibers which could be explained by a correlated barrier hopping (CBH) model. The observed decreasing trend in activation energy with increasing frequency also supported the CBH model. Furthermore, the analysis of log (J) vs. E0.5 curves at different temperatures showed a large difference of ~5.82 between the experimental and theoretical field lowering coefficient with an internal field enhancement factor of α2 = 33.91. This result excluded the possibility of Pool-Frenkel type conduction and the observed variation might be due to the presence of some localized electric fields. Further investigation of IV characteristics revealed that the ‘space-charge-limited current (SCLC) with traps’ may be the possible conduction mechanism.