Colossal elastoresistance, electroresistance and magnetoresistance in Pr0.5Sr0.5MnO3 thin films

•The electric current-induced electroresistance (ER) and magnetoresistance (MR)studies on PLD grown Pr0.5Sr0.5MnO3/(001) LaAlO3 films were found to be greatly sensitive to the film thickness arising from the strain.•It is shown that, 60 nm film exhibit compressive in-plane strain which leads to phase separation and hence colossal MR and ER.•Our results suggest that the manganites located at phase boundary may be an ideal compound for providing practical colossal effects of elastoresistance, electroresistance and magnetoresistance.

Pr0.5Sr0.5MnO3 thin films on substrates of (001)-oriented LaAlO3 were epitaxially grown by pulsed laser deposition. It was found that a substrate-induced strain of ~1.3% brings a great resistivity change of ~98% at 25 K. We studied the dependence of resistivity on the applied electric current and magnetic field. In the greatly strained films of 60 nm thickness the electroresistance ER=[ρ(I1 μA)−ρ(I1000 μA)]/ρ(I1 μA) reaches ~70% at T=25 K, much higher than ER~7% in the strain-relaxed films of 400 nm thickness, implying the strain effect on ER. Also the magnetoresistance of the film falls with strain-relaxation. Therefore the electric properties of the film could be efficiently modified by strain, electric current and magnetic field. All of them may be explained by the effect on the percolative phase separation and competition in the half-doped manganite material. The manganite films located at phase boundary are expected to be an ideal compound for providing practical colossal effects of elastoresistance, electroresistance and magnetoresistance due to the multiphase coexistence.