Epitaxial behavior and transport properties of PrBaCo2O5 thin films on (001) SrTiO3

Highly conductive PrBaCo2O5.5+delta thin films were grown on (001) SrTiO3 by pulsed laser deposition. Microstructural studies from synchrotron x-ray diffraction and transmission electron microscopy reveal that the as-grown PrBaCo2O5.5+delta films are a-axis oriented with excellent single crystallinity. Two domain structures with c axes in the plane directions parallel to the substrate surface were found with an atomic sharp interface. Transport property and isothermal magnetoresistance measurements for both as-grown and post-annealing were done to understand the physical properties of the films. An abnormal positive magnetoresistance effect was observed in the postannealed films, which suggests that the spins in the system are polarized easier. (c) 2007 American Institute of Physics.