Spintronic investigation of the phase separated manganite (La, Ca)MnO3

We report magnetic and electrical transport studies of an epitaxially grown trilayer thin film structure comprising La0.59Ca0.41MnO3 sandwiched between La0.7Ca0.3MnO3 electrodes. Since La0.59Ca0.41MnO3 lies at the edge of the thin film ferromagnetic metallic phase field, phase separation effects are expected. These effects can explain the observed magnetic isotropy of the middle layer. By contrast, the electrode material is magnetically uniaxial. Easy axis magnetic field sweeps of the trilayer produce two sharp magnetic transitions, but only one sharp transition in current-in-plane resistance measurements. (c) 2006 American Institute of Physics.