Unravelling the effect of SrTiO3 antiferrodistortive phase transition on the magnetic properties of La0.7Sr0.3MnO3 thin films

• Type: Article in International Scientific Journal
• Date: 2014

Authors

Mota, DA (Author) Other; Romaguera Barcelay, YR (Author) Other; Senos, AMR (Author) Other; Fernandes, CM (Author) Other; Tavares, PB (Author) Other; Gomes, IT (Author) Other; Sa, P (Author) Other; Fernandes, L (Author) Other; Almeida, BG (Author) Other; Figueiras, F (Author) Other; Mirzadeh Vaghefi, PM (Author) Other; Amaral, VS (Author) Other; Almeida, A (Author) Other; Perez de la Cruz, JP (Author) Other; Agostinho Moreira, JA (Author) FCUP

Journal

Title: Journal of Physics D: Applied Physics

Vol. 47

Final page: 435002

ISSN: 0022-3727

Publisher: Institute of Physics Publishing

Indexing

ISI Proceedings

ISI Web of Knowledge - 6 Citations

Scopus - 6 Citations

Scientific classification

FOS: Natural sciences > Physical sciences

CORDIS: Physical sciences > Physics

Other information

Authenticus ID: P-009-VMG

DOI: 10.1088/0022-3727/47/43/435002

Abstract (EN): Epitaxial La0.7Sr0.3MnO3 (LSMO) thin films, with different thicknesses ranging from 20 to 330 nm, were deposited on (1 0 0)-oriented strontium titanate (STO) substrates by pulsed laser deposition, with their structure and morphology characterized at room temperature. The magnetic and electric transport properties of the as-processed thin films reveal an abnormal behaviour in the temperature dependent magnetization M(T) below the antiferrodistortive STO phase transition (T-STO), and also an anomaly in the magnetoresistance and electrical resistivity close to the same temperature. Films with thickness <= 100 nm show an in-excess magnetization and pronounced changes in the coercivity due to the interface-mediated magnetoelastic coupling with antiferrodistortive domain wall movement occurring below T-STO. However, in thicker LSMO thin films, an in-defect magnetization is observed. This reversed behaviour can be understood with the emergence in the upper layer of the film, of a columnar structure needed to relax the elastic energy stored in the film, which leads to randomly oriented magnetic domain reconstructions. For enough high-applied magnetic fields, as thermodynamic equilibrium is reached, a full suppression of the anomalous magnetization occurs, wherein the temperature dependence of the magnetization starts to follow the expected Brillouin behaviour.

Language: English

Type (Professor's evaluation): Scientific

No. of pages: 9