Low temperature electrical transport behavior of La0.7Ba0.3MnO3 thin Films on LaAlO3 substrates

Abstract The high-quality La 0.7 Ba 0.3 MnO 3 (LBMO) epitaxial films were deposited on (001) oriented LaAlO 3 (LAO) substrates by magnetron sputtering technique. The low temperature electrical transport behavior of the films was investigated in details. In the low temperature ferromagnetic metallic state, a common feature, i.e., the minimum of electrical resistivity, was found in both of the films post annealed in oxygen and argon atmosphere. By taking the unusual combination of factors including spin dependent Kondo-like scattering, electron–electron and electron–phonon interactions into account, the resistivity minimum can be fitted well. It was found that the spin dependent Kondo-like scattering plays an important role in both the films, indicating the intrinsic spin disorder in strongly correlated manganites. Furthermore, in a lower temperature interval 4–25 K, a stronger electron–electron interaction was observed in the Ar annealed films, which can be attributed to the enhanced disorder arising from oxygen vacancy.