Inter-grain tunneling in the half-metallic double-perovskites Sr${}_2$BB'O${}_6$ (BB'-- FeMo, FeRe, CrMo, CrW, CrRe

Abstract

The zero-field conductivities ($\sigma$) of the polycrystaline title materials, are governed by inter-grain transport. In the majority of cases their $\sigma$(T) can be described by the "fluctuation induced tunneling" model. Analysis of the results in terms of this model reveals two remarkable features: 1. For \emph{all} Sr${}_2$FeMoO${}_6$ samples of various microstructures, the tunneling constant (barrier width $\times$ inverse decay-length of the wave-function) is $\sim$ 2, indicating the existence of an intrinsic insulating boundary layer with a well defined electronic (and magnetic) structure. 2. The tunneling constant for \emph{all} cold-pressed samples decreases linearly with increasing magnetic-moment/formula-unit.

10 pages, 2 tables, 3 figures

References in corpus (1)

• Origin of the unconventional magnetoresistance in Sr2FeMoO6