Room temperature colossal magnetoresistance in nanocrystalline La0.67Sr0.33MnO3 sputtered thin films

In this paper we report on the growth of La0.67Sr0.33MnO3 colossal magnetor esistance thin films by using RF reactive sputtering techniques onto therma lly oxidized Si wafers. The as-prepared films show no magnetoresistance cha nge at room temperature but annealed films, with nanocrystalline structures , display a magnetoresistance of similar to 0.4% and similar to 2.2% at 500 Oe and 5 kOe respectively, quite attractive from a technological point of view. This low-field magnetoresistance is related to the magnetization proc ess and dominated by transport across grain boundaries. (C) 2000 Elsevier S cience B.V. All rights reserved.