Electroresistance and magnetoresistance in La0.9Ba0.1MnO3 thin films

The electroresistance and magnetoresistance effects have been investigated in La0.9Ba0.1MnO3 epitaxial thin films. Tensile strain caused by substrate mismatch makes the Curie temperature TC of the film at ∼300 K. The influence of an applied dc-current on the resistance in the absence of a magnetic field was studied. Significant change of the peak resistance at different currents was found. The reduction of the peak resistance reaches ∼27% with an electric current density up to 1.3 × 105 A cm−2. We also studied colossal magnetoresistance (CMR) effect in the films. Applying a magnetic field of 2 T could lead to a magnetoresistance as large as 42%. The reduction of resistance caused by a current density ∼1.3 × 105 A cm−2 was found to be equivalent to the CMR effect caused by 1.5 T near TC. The phenomenon that the resistance in CMR manganites could be easily controlled by the electric current should be of high interest for both fundamental research and practical applications.