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arXiv · 1210.4435

High temperature magnetic insulating phase in ultrathin La0.67Sr0.33MnO3 films

Hans Boschker·Jaap Kautz·Evert P. Houwman·Wolter Siemons·Mark Huijben·Dave H. A. Blank·Gertjan Koster·Arturas Vailionis·Guus Rijnders
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Abstract

We present a study of the thickness dependence of magnetism and electrical conductivity in ultra thin La0.67Sr0.33MnO3 films grown on SrTiO3 (110) substrates. We found a critical thickness of 10 unit cells below which the conductivity of the films disappeared and simultaneously the Curie temperature (TC) increased, indicating a magnetic insulating phase at room temperature. These samples have a TC of about 560 K with a significant saturation magnetization of 1.2 +- 0.2 muB/Mn. The canted antiferromagnetic insulating phase in ultra thin films of n< 10 coincides with the occurrence of a higher symmetry structural phase with a different oxygen octahedra rotation pattern. Such a strain engineered phase is an interesting candidate for an insulating tunneling barrier in room temperature spin polarized tunneling devices.

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Hans Boschker, Jaap Kautz, Evert P. Houwman, Wolter Siemons, Mark Huijben, Dave H. A. Blank, Gertjan Koster, Arturas Vailionis, Guus Rijnders. 2012-10-16. High temperature magnetic insulating phase in ultrathin La0.67Sr0.33MnO3 films. https://doi.org/10.1103/physrevlett.109.157207

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