The effect of microstructure on transport properties of nano-polycrystalline La0.7Sr0.3MnO3-δ films, which were prepared by DC magnetron sputtering at various working pressures and followed by air annealing at 973K for 1h, has been investigated. The result indicates that the change of working pressure can change the microstructure, metal-insulator transition temperature (TIM) and peak resistance but does not change the transport mechanism for the films. The vacancy defects have an important effect on the transport properties of the films. Higher working pressure tends to decrease the density of vacancy defects. Low vacancy defects account for the high TIM and low resistance of the films. In the region of T > TIM, the charge carriers are moving in variable range hopping mode. The behavior of resistance decreasing with the increasing of temperature at low temperature (T<23K) can be explained on the basis of thermal excitation tunneling effect. The minimum resistance results from the combined effect of the tunneling effect and intrinsic metallic transport characteristic of the films.

The La0.8SrxCa0.2-xMnO3 (x=0, 0.05 and 0.15) compounds were synthesized by combining sol-gel method and high temperature sintering. The effects of Sr doping content on the microstructure, metal-insulator transition and magnetoresistance (MR) of the La0.8SrxCa0.2-xMnO3 were investigated. The results show that the La0.8SrxCa0.2-xMnO3 exhibit single perovskite phase and the change of Sr doping content can result in phase structure transition. The La0.8Sr0.15Ca0.05MnO3 is rhombohedra structure and the La0.8SrxCa0.2-xMnO3 shows distorted cubic structure when x is no more than 0.05. Increasing Sr doping content causes the degeneration of microstructure homogeneity and density and the decrease of average grain size of the La0.8SrxCa0.2-xMnO3, which can be attributed to the weakening of atomic diffusion during the sintering process. The metal-insulator transition temperature (TMI) of the compounds increases with the decrease of Sr doping content due to the improvement of microstructure. The La0.8Sr0.15Ca0.05MnO3 has the highest MR peak value, which is about 95%. The La0.8Ca0.2MnO3 has the highest room temperature MR, which is about 28%. Moreover, the magnetoresistance of the La0.8Ca0.2MnO3 is very stable between 125~300K.

The La0.7SrxCa0.3-xMnO3 (x=0, 0.05, 0.1, 0.15, 0.2, 0.25 and 0.3) were prepared by combining sol-gel method and high temperature sintering. The effects of Sr doping content on the structure and morphologies of the La0.7SrxCa0.3-xMnO3 finally sintered at 1050°C/1250°C were investigated based on the analyses of X-ray diffraction (XRD) and Scanning Electron Microscope (SEM). The results show that the La0.7SrxCa0.3-xMnO3 exhibit single perovskite phase and the change of Sr doping content can result in phase structure transition. The La0.7SrxCa0.3-xMnO3 samples are rhombohedra structure in the range of 0.15≤x≤0.3. When x is no more than 0.1, the La0.7SrxCa0.3-xMnO3 samples sintered at 1050°C present distorted cubic structure. The microstructure of La0.7SrxCa0.3-xMnO3 sintered at 1050°C for 5h becomes more and more looser and its grains tend to refinement with the increase of Sr doping content when x is no less than 0.05. Increasing the final sintering temperature can improve the density and promote the grain growth of La0.7SrxCa0.3-xMnO3. In order to gain a dense microstructure, the final sintering temperature of La0.7SrxCa0.3-xMnO3 should be higher than 1050°C and should be suitably increased with the increase of Sr doping content.

The La0.7M0.3MnO3 (M=Ca, Sr) were synthesized by combining sol-gel technique and solid state sintering method. The evolutions of phase structure and micro-morphologies of the La0.7M0.3MnO3 with final sintering temperature (950-1250°C) were investigated. The results show that the La0.7Ca0.3MnO3 compounds exhibit single perovskite phase with cubic structure and the La0.7Sr0.3MnO3 compounds exhibit single perovskite phase with rhombohedra structure. The final sintering temperature has no obvious effect on the phase structure of La0.7Ca0.3MnO3. However, the density and grain size of La0.7M0.3MnO3 (M=Ca, Sr) increase with the increase of the final sintering temperature. Moreover, the micro-morphologies of La0.7Ca0.3MnO3 are more sensitive to final sintering temperature compared with that of La0.7Sr0.3MnO3. When sintering temperature is no less than 1150°C, the La0.7Ca0.3MnO3 has hardly any pore. After sintering at no less than 1250°C, the La0.7Sr0.3MnO3 becomes dense.

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