The effect of post-annealing on the structure and magnetotransport properties of Pr0.5Sr0.5MnO3 thin film

Pr0.5Sr0.5MnO3 (PSMO) thin film is epitaxially grown on (001)-oriented LaAlO3 single-crystal substrate using pulsed laser deposition (PLD). It is found that the as-grown PSMO film shows compressive strain in plane and tensile strain out of the plane. Upon annealing at 900°C in the air, the strain is significantly relaxed. The paramagnetic to ferromagnetic phase transition temperature TC shifts from 200 K to 220 K, and the antiferromagnetic insulating phase is suppressed in the phase separated state at low temperature. In addition, the magnetoresistance (MR) is found to increase around the ferromagnetic transition temperature, whereas it decreases from 99% to 60% at low temperature of 20 K.