Investigation of ferromagnetic heterogeneities in La0.7Sr0.3MnO3 thin films

La0.7Sr0.3MnO3 manganite thin films are interesting since they have a fully spin-polarized conduction band at room temperature and this opens the way for applications in electronics. An important issue is their magnetic heterogeneity, which is very difficult to detect. We address here the heterogeneity detection issue in two epitaxial LSMO thin films (57 nm and 90 nm thick) on Si substrate fabricated by reactive molecular beam epitaxy (MBE) deposition. Combining three complementary analytic techniques, we measured structural and magnetic behavior of these films. The high frequency ferromagnetic resonance behavior observed in these two LSMO samples put in evidence a standard dynamic behaviour in the case of the homogeneous material and an uncommon multi-mode behavior in the heterogeneous bi-layered film. The multi-mode behavior can be attributed to the presence of two magnetic sub-layers inside the LSMO film. Indeed, transmission electron microscopy observations and neutron reflectivity measurements are essential to give a microscopic description of the structure and intrinsic magnetic homo/heterogeneity of the composite film.