Spin-dependent transport in the double-perovskite Sr2CrWO6

We report on the preparation and characterization of the double-perovskite compound Sr2CrWO6 with a Curie temperature of 390 K. We have fabricated both Sr2CrWO6 bulk sintered polycrystalline bars and high-quality epitaxial thin films on SrTiO3 substrates by pulsed-laser deposition. The samples were characterized by thermogravimetric analysis, x-ray diffraction, electrical transport, and magnetization measurements. Polycrystalline samples containing a large number of grain boundaries show a large low-field magnetoresistance of up to 100% at 5 K. At room temperature, this effect is reduced to a few percent. Our results show that Sr2CrWO6 is an interesting candidate for room-temperature magnetoelectronic materials. (C) 2001 American Institute of Physics.