Temperature-induced variation of magnetoresistance and tunneling current in La2/3Sr1/3MnO3/LaMnO3 (ZrO2)/La2/3Sr1/3MnO3 junctions

• Trilayer junctions with different spacers have been fabricated using masking method by PLD techniques.
• The magnetoresistance shows different phenomena along with different intermediate barriers as a function of temperature.
• The tunneling current as a function of resistance present parabolic type of curves and strong dependence on temperature.
• The tunneling current is correlated with magnetoresistance which varies with temperature.

We report the temperature dependence of the magnetotransport properties for the La2/3Sr1/3MnO3/ZrO2/La2/3Sr1/3MnO3 and La2/3Sr1/3MnO3/LaMnO3/La2/3Sr1/3MnO3 trilayer junctions. The ferromagnetic La2/3Sr1/3MnO3 has been selected as the top and bottom ferromagnetic metallic layers, along with the antiferromagnetic LaMnO3 spacer and nonmagnetic ZrO2 spacer as tunneling barriers, respectively. For different tunneling barriers, the magnetoresistance and the tunneling current of the junctions show different phenomena with decreasing temperature. Temperature dependence of magnetoresistance of the La2/3Sr1/3MnO3/ZrO2/La2/3Sr1/3MnO3 structure shows double peaks while that of La2/3Sr1/3MnO3/LaMnO3/La2/3Sr1/3MnO3 displays one peak. Furthermore, the tunneling current is correlated with the magnetoresistance. These findings may find potential uses in magnetic data storages and magnetic switches.