Growth and properties of pulsed laser deposited Fe3O4/La0.7Ca0.3MnO3 bilayers

Magnetic multilayers have attracted much attention due to their potential applications in spintronic devices because of their ability to inject spin-polarized current. The bilayer of ferrimagnetic Fe3O4 and manganites La0.7Ca0.3MnO3 (LCMO) is an interesting system due to the (i) fascinating electrical and magnetic properties of the spinel and perovskite material and (ii) high-spin polarization character of Fe3O4. In this work, we report our results on pulsed laser deposited thin films of Fe3O4/LCMO bilayer on LaAlO3 (LAO) substrate. For comparison, LCMO and Fe3O4 films were also grown on LAO substrate separately. The films were characterized by techniques such as X-ray diffraction, four-probe electrical resistivity with and without magnetic field. It is shown that oriented Fe3O4/LCMO bilayer can be grown successfully on the c-axis oriented LAO substrate. The electrical transport properties suggest that at low temperature the junction shows considerable magnetoresistance.