By laser ablation we prepared thin films of the colossal magnetoresistive c
ompound La1-xCaxMnO3 with doping levels 0.1 < x < 0.9 on MgO substrates. X-
ray diffraction revealed epitaxial growth and a systematic decrease of the
lattice constants with doping. The variation of the transport and magnetic
properties in this doping series was investigated by SQUID magnetization an
d electrical transport measurements. For the nonmetallic samples resistance
s up to 10(13) Omega have been measured with an electrometer setup. While t
he transport data indicate polaronic transport for the metallic samples abo
ve the Curie temperature the low-doped ferromagnetic insulating samples sho
w a variable range hopping like transport at low-temperature. (C) 2000 Else
vier Science B.V. All rights reserved.