| The recent interest in the electrical and magnetic properties of the perovskite manganites of La1−xAxMnO3 (where A is Ca, Sr, Ba, etc.) is because of the large magnetoresistance ratio, in excess of −100,000%, observed in these materials. In a doping range of x ∼ 0.2–0.5, these manganites exhibit simultaneous electronic and magnetic transitions. As the temperature is decreased below room temperature, the semiconducting and paramagnetic material becomes metallic and ferromagnetic at lower temperatures. Hence, these materials can be used as semiconductor at room temperature. The central objective of this research was to integrate the films of CMR La2/3Ca1/3MnO 3 with ferroelectric SbSI, both grown by pulsed laser deposition, and test their suitability as a nonvolatile memory element with non-destructive readout.; Ca doped manganites, La2/3Ca1/3MnO3 (LCMO), were prepared in ceramic form. The resistivity of the ceramics increased with decrease in sintering temperature and pelletizing pressure. Anomalous resistivity transport behavior was observed when the process parameters during the solid state reaction were changed. Two peaks were observed in the resistivity transport for ceramics sintered at 1400–1500°C. The second peak was attributed to the intergrain transport, dominated by the surface phase of the grains. As the sintering temperature was decreased, the resistivity of the ceramics increased and greater dominance of surface phase transport was observed. Non-linear I–V characteristics were studied in the LCMO ceramics, with potential application as low voltage varistors.; Pulsed laser deposition (PLD) was used to grow films of LCMO and SbSI. The transport properties of LCMO are very sensitive to the mixed valence of Mn, which, in turn, depends on the oxygen content for a fixed doping level. The effect of various process parameters during PLD and post-deposition annealing was studied. The as-grown SbSI films were post-annealed in air and characterized for ferroelectric properties at room temperature.; The SbSI/LCMO integrated structure were fabricated, which showed a maximum channel modulation of approximately 10% with a switching voltage of 2 V, and good retention properties (i.e., nonvolatility for at least up to 2 hours). A small polarization loss of 5% was observed for bipolar switching up to 10 7 cycles. |
