Magnetic Measurements on Stressed and Stress Relieved La0.66Ca0.33MnO3 Thin Films

Abstract

AbstractIn general, epitaxially grown thin films are biaxially stressed if the lattice mismatch of substrate and film is below 2%. We have used epitaxial strain as an extrinsic source of tensile stress exerted to La0.66Ca0.33 MnO3 thin films deposited on SrTiO3 single crystal substrates. The average stress in the film is a function of film thickness and post deposition annealing. Thickness variation and annealing procedures have been used to explore the stress dependence of the characterisics of magnetization curves of the stressed films. It could be shown that the inflection point of the magnetization curve which determines the transition from Blochwall movements to rotations of the magnetization vector and the Rayleigh constant of the virgin magnetization curve are correlated with the stress of the films in analogy to results obtained for plastically deformed single crystals of conventional ferromagnetic metals.