This is the final report of a three-year, Laboratory Directed Research and Development (LDRD) project at Los Alamos National Laboratory (LANL). This work involved the synthesis of single crystal and thin film samples of magnetoresistive manganites (LaMnO{sub 3} doped with Ca and Sr) and the characterization of their electronic transport properties to understand the underlying physical mechanisms responsible for the colossal magnetoresistance (CMR) of these materials. The experimental program was supplemented by a modeling effort that sought to develop microscopic mathematical models of the observed phenomena. The authors succeeded in finding an important relation between the magnetization and resistivity in these materials, which helps to explain the importance of lattice distortions accompanied by clusters of ferromagnetic spins (called spin-lattice polarons) in the CMR phenomena. In addition, they developed rudimentary tunnel junctions of CMR-insulator-CMR multilayers that will lead to possible applications of these materials as magnetic sensors.
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