I-V Characteristics of Resistive Oxides: DC versus Pulsed Measurements

B. Fisher, J. Genossar, K.B. Chashka, L. Patlagan and G.M. Reisner Physics Department, Technion, Haifa 32000, Israel

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Received: 04 09 2006;

We investigated pulsed and DC I-V characteristics of a variety of resistive oxides. Examples of pulsed, compared with DC characteristics, are shown for samples of La1.2Sr1.8Mn2O7 (a double layer manganite), Pr2/3Ca1/3MnO3 and Bi1/2Sr1/2MnO3 (charge-ordered manganites), Sr2FeMoO6, Sr2CrWO6 and Ba2MnReO6 (double perovskites). For pulsed measurements, single pulses in the ms range were applied. For short-rise-time square pulses, the Joule heating is negligible, as long as the response remains independent of time. The DC I-V characteristics were measured up to current runaway in the negative resistance regime;Δ T never exceeded a fraction of a degree. In most cases the DC characteristics mask a perfectly ohmic or moderately non-ohmic conductivity obtained by pulsed measurements. This demonstrates that the widely used DC I-V measurements in the high current regime are frequently misleading.

DOI: 10.12693/APhysPolA.111.57 PACS numbers: 72.20.Ht, 75.47.Lx, 77.80.Fm