Magnetic interactions and electron transport in hole-doped manganite-superconducting cuprate heterostructures

Abstract

This thesis presents a systematic study of magnetotransport and magnetic ordering in manganite-high T$_c$ cuprate spin valve structures. YBa$_{2}$Cu$_{3}$O$_{7}$ - La$_{2 / 3}$Sr$_{1 / 3}$MnO$_{3}$ heterostructures of (110) orientation are grown to allow direct injection of spin polarized holes from the La$_{2 / 3}$Sr$_{1 / 3}$MnO$_{3}$ (LSMO) into the CuO$_2$ superconducting planes of the YBa$_{2}$Cu$_{3}$O$_{7}$ (YBCO). Galvanomagnetic studies on the LSMO-YBCO-LSMO trilayers reveal unusually high AMR ($\sim$72000%) on rotating the field in the plane of the heterostructure whose magnetic ground state is antiferromagnetic (AF). The coupling energy J$_1$ of the AF state in these trilayers is much higher as compared to energy of (001) oriented hybrids. First the preparation and measurement of magnetic and galvanomagnetic properties of (110) and (001) oriented La$_{2 / 3}$Sr$_{1 / 3}$MnO$_{3}$ films are described. The magnetization vector ($\vec{M}$) of the (001) and (110) type films is pinned along the (110) and (001) directions respectively at low fields. A magnetization orientation phase transition (MRPT) which manifests itself as a discontinuity and hysteresis in $R(\psi)$ where $\psi$ is the angle between $\vec{H}$ and the easy axis for the $\vec{H}$ below a critical value $\vec{H}^*$ has been established. Further, the relevance of pair-breaking by exchange and dipolar fields, and by injected spins in a low carrier density cuprate Y$_{1-x}$Pr$_x$Ba$_2$Cu$_3$O$_7$ sandwiched between two ferromagnetic LSMO layers is examined. At low external field ($H_{ext}$), the system shows a giant magnetoresistance(MR), which diverges deep in the superconducting state.