Manganite-based heterojunction and its photovoltaic effects

A heterojunction is fabricated by growing a La0.29Pr0.38Ca0.33MnO3 (LPCM) film on the 0.5 wt % Nb-doped SrTiO3 (STON) substrate, and its properties have been experimentally studied. In addition to fairly good rectifying behavior, the heterojunction exhibits a significant photovoltaic effect. The photovoltage on the two electrodes LPCM and STON increases almost linearly with the power of the laser beam (lambda=532 nm) at a rate of similar to0.19 V/W, and no tendency to saturation is observed up to the light power of 100 mW. The lifetime of the extra carriers is between 7 and 9 ms (slightly pulse laser energy dependent), obtained from the decay of photovoltage after shutting down light illumination. The present work shows a great potential of the manganite-based heterojunction as photoelectric devices. (C) 2004 American Institute of Physics.