The unusual magnetotransport properties of La0.67Sr0.33MnO3 with Nb2O5 addition

Abstract

Enhancements of the low-field (LFMR) and high-field magnetoresistance (HFMR) were observed in the manganite system prepared by doping Nb2O5 into La0.67Sr0.33MnO3 powders. The maximum MR ratios at 77K with H=1T and 1kOe are 30% and 20% for the 0.07molar ratio doped sample, which are 1.7 times and 1.6 times as large as that for LSMO, respectively. An MR effect up to 6.5% was also found for the sample with x=0.03 at room temperature (RT). The spin-dependent tunneling and scattering at the interfaces of grain boundaries are responsible for the LFMR while the HFMR originates from a noncollinear spin structure in the surface layer. With increasing x, the Curie temperature (TC) decreases monotonically from 364 to 154K while the temperature TP related to the peak resistivity decreases firstly to a minimum of 204K (x=0.06) and then rises up to 240K (x=0.1). There is a maximum resistivity ρ for the sample with x=0.06, which is higher than that for LSMO by five orders of magnitude. It is due to the enhancement of spin-dependent and independent scattering and tunneling effects on the interfaces of grain boundaries and inside the grains.