Non-Ohmic conduction in exfoliated La0.7Ca0.3MnO3 thin films

Abstract

We present a strong non-Ohmic transport characteristic of the exfoliated La0.7Ca0.3MnO3 thin film obtained by growing a water-soluble sacrificial layer of Sr3Al2O6 between the SrTiO3 substrate and the La0.7Ca0.3MnO3 film. The non-Ohmic conduction manifests itself as a significant amount of electroresistance over a wide range of temperatures. The resistance shows a plateaulike feature at low temperatures, and the electroresistance reaches ∼50 000% at 10 K for input currents varying from 1024 nA to 125 pA. The structural characterization of the exfoliated film reveals the existence of antiphase boundaries, the tunneling through which appears to cause the non-Ohmic feature. Our results provide an avenue into colossal tunneling electroresistance mediated by crystallographic defects.