Resistivity of Manganite Thin Film Under Strain

A complex study of the electron transport and magnetic characteristics of epitaxial manganite films La0.7Ba0.3MnO3 (LBMO) was carried out under conditions of the crystal structure tension caused by a mismatch between the parameters of the LBMO crystal and the substrate. The epitaxial thin films with the thickness 40–100 nm were grown by pulsed laser deposition at T = 700–800 °C in pure oxygen pressure 0.3–1 mbar. The substrates (110) NGO, (001) STO, (001) LAO, and (001) LSAT were used. By comparison of the lattice parameter of LBMO targets with substrate’s one, the lattice mismatches were derived. We used substrates in which the lattice parameter was less than for the LBMO crystal one. It is shown that the temperature dependence of the film resistance in the low-temperature region does not depend on the film stress and is in good agreement with the calculation that takes into account the interaction of carriers with magnetic excitations in the presence of strongly correlated electron states. A nonmonotonic temperature dependence of the resistance of an LBMO film deposited on ferroelectric crystals PMN-PT that was observed. This feature is typical for manganites, and indicating the presence of ferromagnetism in the system was observed.