Transport properties of NdNiO3 thin films made by pulsed-laser deposition

Pulsed-laser deposition was used to make thin films of NdNiO3 on a variety of substrates. The films were found to be single phase perovskite in all cases. However, the transport behavior varied strongly as a function of the substrate used: the films were semiconducting on MgO, but showed a metal-semiconductor phase transition on SrTiO3 and NdGaO3. The best electrical-switching properties corresponded to films grown on NdGaO3, with the resistivity changing abruptly by more than two orders of magnitude at T(MI)similar to 185 K. Very thin films (similar to 35 nm) were also grown on NdGaO3 substrates to investigate the epitaxial strain effect on the transition. It appears that biaxial tensile strain stabilizes the high temperature metallic phase, thus lowering T-MI. (C) 2000 American Institute of Physics. [S0021- 8979(99)05424-9].