Orthorhombic DyMnO3 films are fabricated epitaxially on Nb-1.0 wt%-doped SrTiO3 single crystal substrates using pulsed laser deposition technique. The structure of the deposited DyMnO3 films is studied by X-ray diffraction, and the epitaxial relationship between the film and the substrate is determined. The electrical transport properties reveal the diodelike rectifying behaviors in the all-perovskite oxide junctions over a wide temperature range (100 ~ 340 K). The forward current is exponentially related to the forward bias voltage, and the extracted ideality factors show distinct transport mechanisms in high and low positive regions. The leakage current increases with increasing reverse bias voltage, and the breakdown voltage decreases with decrease temperature, a consequence of tunneling effects because the leakage current at low temperature is larger than that at high temperature. The determined built-in potentials are 0.37 V in the low bias region, and 0.11 V in the high bias region, respectively. The results show the importance of temperature and applied bias in determining the electrical transport characteristics of all-perovskite oxide heterostructures.

Orthorhombic dysprosium manganite DyMnO3 with single phase is synthesized using solid-state reaction technique and the crystal structure and dielectric properties as functions of temperature and frequency are investigated. Thermally activated dielectric relaxations are shown in the temperature dependence of the complex permittivity, and the respective peaks are found to be shifted to higher temperatures as the measuring frequency increases. In Arrhenius plots, activation energies of 0.32 and 0.24 eV for the high- and low-temperature relaxations are observed, respectively. Analysis of the relationship between the real and imaginary parts of the permittivity and the frequencies allows us to explain the dielectric behavior of DyMnO3 ceramics by the universal dielectric response model. A separation of the intrinsic grain and grain boundary properties is achieved using an equivalent circuit model. The dielectric responses of this circuit are discerned by impedance spectroscopy study. The determined grain and grain boundary effects in the orthorhombic DyMnO3 ceramics are responsible for the observed high- and low-temperature relaxations in the dielectric properties.