Giant positive magnetoresistance in Co@CoO nanoparticle arrays

Abstract

We report the magnetotransport properties of self-assembled Co@CoO nanoparticle arrays at temperatures below 100 K. Resistance shows thermally activated behavior that can be fitted by the general expression of R∝ exp{(T0/T)ν}. Efros–Shklovskii variable range hopping (ν=1/2) and simple activation (hard gap, ν=1) dominate the high and low temperature region, respectively, with a strongly temperature-dependent transition regime in between. A giant positive magnetoresistance (MR) of >1400% is observed at 10 K, which decreases with increasing temperature. The positive MR and most of its features can be explained by the Zeeman splitting of the localized states that suppresses the spin dependent hopping paths in the presence of on-site Coulomb repulsion.