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Disorder-induced melting of the charge order in thin films of Pr0.5Ca0.5MnO3

Z. Q. Yang·R. W. A. Hendrikx·P. J. M. v. Bentum·J. Aarts
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Abstract

We have studied the magnetic-field-induced melting of the charge order in thin films of Pr0.5Ca0.5MnO3 (PCMO) films on SrTiO3 (STO) by X-ray diffraction, magnetization and transport measurement. At small thickness (25 nm) the films are under tensile strain and the low-temperature melting fields are of the order of 20 T or more, comparable to the bulk value. With increasing film thickness the strain relaxes, which leads to a strong decrease of the melting fields. For a film of 150 nm, with in-plane and out-of-plane lattice parameters closer to the bulk value, the melting field has reduced to 4 T at 50 K, with a strong increase in the hysteretic behavior and also an increasing fraction of ferromagnetic material. Strain relaxation by growth on a template of YBa2Cu3O(7-delta) or by post-annealing yields similar results with an even stronger reduction of the melting field. Apparently, strained films behave bulk-like. Relaxation leads to increasing suppression of the CO state, presumably due to atomic scale disorder produced by the relaxation process.

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Z. Q. Yang, R. W. A. Hendrikx, P. J. M. v. Bentum, J. Aarts. 2002-01-21. Disorder-induced melting of the charge order in thin films of Pr0.5Ca0.5MnO3. https://doi.org/10.1209/epl%2Fi2002-00454-4

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