Magnetic field dependent variable range hopping behaviour in resistivity at low temperatures in polycrystalline colossal magnetoresistive manganites: evidence of spin polarised tunnelling

It has been observed that the low temperature magnetoresistance behaviour in polycrystalline colossal magnetoresistive (CMR) manganites differ significantly from the single crystals. The polycrystalline samples show large magnetoresistance at temperatures much below the ferromagnetic transition temperature where the magnetoresistance of single crystals is very small. This has conventionally been attributed to spin polarised tunnelling at the grain boundaries in polycrystalline samples. In this paper we show the existence of a variable range hopping behaviour in resistivity at low temperatures in polycrystalline CMR samples. This behaviour gets gradually suppressed under the application of magnetic field. We discuss the significance of these results with respect to spin polarised tunnelling.