Magnetic and electrical transport properties of nanostructured La0.67Ca0.33MnO3 networks

Contiguously nanostructured networks of La0.67Ca0.33MnO3 (LCMO) are fabricated successfully by pulsed electron deposition (PED) onto the surface of porous anodic alumina oxide (AAO). The Curie temperature (TC) is about 250 K. The metal–insulator transition temperature (Tp) is about 145 K without the magnetic field. The magnetoresistance can reach 84% near the peak temperature, which suggesting a strong magnetic correlated electronic transportation process. Zero field cooling (ZFC) and field cooling (FC) are split below the paramagnetic–ferromagnetic transition. The ZFC curves exhibit a typical blocking process. The observed spin glass and weak localization phenomena are due to the size effect, and it is found that the resistance dependent temperature curve above metal–insulator transition temperature (Tp) is more suitable to small polaron hopping (SPH) model.